


A Collector's Guide To Caring For Your Pets

by Ourliazo



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Child!Hibari Kyouya, Cute Kids, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Lighter Tests, Pre-Manga, Rather Odd Thought Processes, Tsuna is So Done, Violence Is Good
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2018-10-13 22:35:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 21,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10523304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ourliazo/pseuds/Ourliazo
Summary: Kyouya is seven years old and enjoys making herbivores spontaneously combust.(In which Kyouya collects flame active children because the colours are pretty. By the time someone notices it's already far too late.)





	1. Chapter 1

Kyouya is seven and a half years old.

Currently, he is bored in his house alone. So he tugs on his shoes and swings a backpack onto his shoulders, locking the door after he slips out. He puts the keys in the pocket of his black pants, adjusts his light grey shirt, and goes for a walk.

He somehow finds his way to the largest park in Namimori, more like a series of three ovals and a child's playground with maze like obstacles and five different swing sets. It's a breeding ground for herbivores and crowding and Kyouya dislikes it immensely. However, he needs to patrol it as more herbivores leads to more rule breaking. He paces a large circuit around the ovals, no one giving him a second look.

He is young now but soon they will learn to fear him.

After the overview, he narrows down on the mass of children in the playground portion, the herbivores loud and energetic and – and… other words that Kyouya cannot think of in this moment. Kyouya makes a disgusted face, crinkling his nose and frowning. Two mothers off to the side coo at him as he passes.

Kyouya mercifully ignores them because they are both outrageously fat and therefore they will soon lay eggs. Kyouya is not allowed to discipline fat people. Or wrinkly people, but that's because they die soon anyway and it would just waste Kyouya's time.

Kyouya nods decisively and passes by the fat ones, wading into the cesspool that is a public playground. He scans the children, most of them shrieking and laughing manically as they climb things or slide down other things. The ground is that ridiculous half bouncy plastic thing that's supposed to lessen impact when falling. It's also bright yellow.

Whatever, adults are weird.

Kyouya dislikes herbivores. However, he has a duty to keep the peace (self-professed but it still counts), and that sandbox looks undisciplined. He walks over, dodging children, and comes to a stop at the edge.

There are two others, a fluffy brunet and a blond with pigtails. Kyouya sits on one raised edge with his feet planted in the sand and stares down at the material for a moment. He reaches out slowly and grabs a handful, the sand running through his fingers.

Kyouya loses track of time as he forms a castle out of sand. His castle. It'll have a moat and turret guns and a dragon (but no princess) and Kyouya will be the CEO and he'll have _all the kittens he could ever want_.

He piles on more sand to form another tower, this one dedicated to counterinsurgency on the top floors and guerrilla warfare on the bottom. In the middle will be Kyouya's napping room filled with pillows and blankets and warm, warm sunshine. Maybe an aviary as well, full to the brim with song birds.

He hums happily, now sitting in the sand with his legs folded to his sides. His creation is a massive one meter by one meter pile of sand, nine towers and drawbridges and walls because the number sounds like the word for pain and suffering. Which will happen to any herbivores moronic enough to enter Kyouya's domain.

He smirks and continues building his ninth tower.

More herbivores suddenly approach, the four males larger than him, which automatically activates Kyouya's caution. Will they challenge him for the castle? Do they truly think they can take Kyouya's territory?

The four nine year olds take one look at the silver eyed boy, who stares up at them with a dark look in his eyes -something almost like a vicious glee- and they immediately change targets to the fluffy brunet.

Kyouya watches in mild curiosity as the herbivores give him and his castle a wide berth as they move to the brunet. He only just notices now that the blond female is gone and even more children have entered the playground, only kept away from the sandbox because Kyouya has taken up two thirds. Most of them don't know his wrath but children are sensitive to intent, and their minds are screaming at them to not approach.

The playground is crowded and he can barely hear a single conversation, the words and sounds overlapping with so many herbivores. He can't see through the rush of children either and the parents watching from benches are completely obscured.

The fluffy brunet lets out a cry of shock as his sand bunny is stomped on. The gang of four sneer at him and the herbivore starts whimpering, tears gathering in his eyes.

Kyouya scoffs because the crying is just so cliché. Why does no one punch as a first response? That would make more sense than crying, wouldn't it? Kyouya hits things as a first response, and he maybe likes the sound of wooden tonfa connecting with flesh just a bit too much, but who's going to stop him?

"This is ours now," one of the bigger kids says.

The brunet sniffles a bit and points at Kyouya. "But he's here as well."

The four look at Kyouya who is currently imagining hitting things, the thoughts showing on his face. They takes quick steps back, making sure to never show their backs to the other boy, and turn to the brunet.

"He doesn't count," the same big kid says. "Now leave."

The fluffy brunet starts hiccupping which quickly turns to sobbing. The four don't care, they just want to play with sand. One steps up and pushes the brunet, because if he's far enough away then he's not their problem anymore and they won't get in trouble for making someone cry.

The brunet topples over the side of the sandbox and starts crying louder.

Kyouya blinks and tilts his head to the side. The herbivore looks like he's… glowing. Kyouya stands and weaves around his castle, walking towards the herbivore. The four older children tense and move together like a herd of sheep, disappearing into the crowd and staying near the parents for safety.

Kyouya reaches the fluffy brunet and stands over the creature who calms to sniffles and the occasional hiccup again after the four leave. Kyouya narrows his eyes as the glow vanishes. Clearly, it's a defence mechanism, and so Kyouya pulls his backpack off and takes out his tonfa. The herbivore is bopped on the head-

And bursts into flames.

It doesn't last long at all, maybe just half a second, but Kyouya is shocked enough to actually drop a wooden tonfa. At that point, the bright flicker of orange that covered the child is long gone and the brunet is crying in that annoying way where the child half screams.

Kyouya honestly doesn't care about the noise, because he just hit the herbivore so hard it  _exploded_.


	2. Chapter 2

Tsuna clamps his hands over his mouth but he can only lessen his sobs to the occasional hiccupping and sniffles. The older boys are scary and mean, so Tsuna was very glad the nice boy had scared them off – but it was a foul trick and now the nice boy is mean!

He hit Tsuna on the head! With a… a… a wooden thingy! Who hits people with wood? Mean boys, that's who.

The silver eyed child drops his other stick and steps forwards. Tsuna whimpers and leans away, really hoping that his mum will save him. He'll even use up a birthday wish for it.

Tsuna scrunches his eyes closed and hunches his shoulders, trying to curl into himself. If he can't see the mean boy, the mean boy obviously won't be able to see him. Tsuna gives himself a mental pat on the back for that sound logic.

Tsuna's eyes snap open in horror when arms wrap around him, far smaller than his mum's but still rather warm. How could the boy see Tsuna? Are his silver eyes magical? Tsuna tenses in preparation for more pain but then it occurs to him that the other was trying to apologise.

Tsuna leans into the hug, uncurling from his ball and wrapping his arms around the boy's neck. Hugs fix everything. Tsuna's head doesn't even hurt anymore.

The arms around Tsuna tighten and lift him off the ground entirely. Tsuna blinks for a moment as the other boy calmly starts walking away. With Tsuna.

"Mum!" Tsuna shrieks in terror, tears springing to his eyes as he kicks his little legs. "Mum, help me!"

* * *

Kyouya was not able to steal the herbivore, as the screaming attracted too much attention.

Luckily the mother herbivore waved off the attempted kidnapping as Kyouya playing around, and cooed over the fluffy brunet making a new friend. The small family leave quickly after the short introduction, because the brunet just kept screaming.

No matter. Kyouya will have the herbivore eventually.

If all else fails, Kyouya may be able to go undercover as an herbivore friend and gain their trust, buying time until he has enough information to blackmail the mother herbivore into giving Kyouya custody. Kyouya will be a great father to the fluffy firework.

Kyouya watches with narrowed eyes as the pair walk away from the park, having memorised the last name during the mother's introduction. Sawada. They shouldn't be too hard to find, especially with the police records Kyouya has.

Or he will have, as soon as he breaks in again. Really, he has no idea why the herbivores insist on trying to stop Kyouya's access to the police station. He's the carnivore and Namimori is his territory, so if Kyouya wants to ignore a few human rights then he should be allowed too.

Honestly, it's like they think Kyouya isn't their commissioner.

He frowns lightly and turns to his sandcastle again, but during his short absence the sandbox has filled up with children, and his castle is unrecognisable from enemy tampering. Kyouya scowls because the defences should have kicked in –that's why he added turret guns and a dragon, after all.

Where was the blood of the intruders? Where was the screaming of trespassers as their limbs were ripped off by Kyouya's dragon? He lets out a breath and his expression smooths out. He will let this infraction slide, because he has made a wonderful discovery.

Today, someone  _exploded._  Kyouya greatly underestimated just how immensely satisfying it was to hit someone hard enough that they spontaneously combusted.

He is peripherally aware that he is not the cause of the small-scale detonation, but that doesn't matter, because the herbivore caught on fire and it was pretty and Kyouya has never been one for nightlights but he could make an exception.

He picks up his dropped tonfa, tucks them into his backpack and heads home to plan. After all, he still doesn't have an exploding herbivore of his own. That's the first thing that needs to be fixed.

* * *

The next day, he hunts down some herbivores. It takes five children for Kyouya to realise that maybe not all of them will catch on fire. He goes through another three because he just likes hitting things.

Perhaps the brunet was special since the boy was already glowing before Kyouya bopped him on the head. With that hypothesis in mind, he goes searching for another glowing herbivore.

It doesn't take long to find one.

The herbivore is running around a more isolated block of houses, simply lapping the place over and over while shouting about how extreme everything is. The child is loud, and while at first Kyouya thought it was energetic, he soon realises that the herbivore isn't bouncing around like a chipmunk. The child simply has stamina, which is a good thing for Kyouya because that means more fire for longer.

Kyouya isn't sure how he hasn't noticed the herbivore before now, because the bright yellow glow is practically seeping off the long, white haired child. This herbivore, like the brunet, is simply glowing and not catching on fire instantly.

Perhaps they work like glow sticks and Kyouya needs to break the herbivore first? Not too badly, just crack it a little and then shake.

He'll put it back together later.

Kyouya steps into the herbivore's way and sticks out a foot at the last second, tripping the white haired child who was going at quite a fast speed. The herbivore slams into the road face first and the momentum carries it along, skidding on its chest with its legs in the air until it finally comes to a stop and the rest of the body flops down onto the road.

Kyouya hums in satisfaction and moves to the herbivore, about to pick it up by the ankle and drag it back home with him. Before he reaches the child, the herbivore shifts, and Kyouya stills in confusion. That should have knocked the child unconscious at the very least.

The yellow one pushes up and hauls himself to his feet, blinking dazedly around with his face bloody and scratched from the road. Despite the amount of red, Kyouya sees no open wounds. The herbivore catches sight of Kyouya and it falls into a wobbly boxing stance.

"Hey, you!" the herbivore bellows. Not angry, simply loud. "That was an extreme move you just did! Let's have a boxing match!"

Kyouya blinks and then frowns in annoyance, pulling his backpack off and taking out his tonfa. The first hit makes the herbivore stumble but it comes back for more. Annoyingly enough, there's not even a hint of fire despite the yellow glow getting brighter.

No matter how many times Kyouya hits the child, it doesn't go down. This is a problem, because he can't hit harder since he might damage the herbivore permanently, or worse, break his tonfa.

Kyouya gives up after half an hour, because it's nap time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – Sleeping Habits
> 
> “No, Kyouya went back already,” Tsuna replies over the gunfire.
> 
> Dino pointedly looks around the battlefield, at the large mass of enemies that definitely haven’t been taken care of yet.
> 
> Tsuna shrugs. “He said he was sleepy.”


	3. Chapter 3

Yellow does not produce fire, unlike the orange one. This is a problem, because while Kyouya likes the pretty glow, outright flame would be better. Perhaps the extent of the detonation radius relies on the colours shown, in which case Kyouya will need to perform an experiment. The method is easy to decide on, since using fire to create more fire is just simple logic.

The next day Kyouya once again finds the yellow firework, the herbivore jogging near the small river. It is easy catching his prey – disappointingly easy.

Before the yellow one knows what's happening, Kyouya is sitting on its chest, his legs pinning the rather muscular arms. He shifts a bit, getting comfortable, and searches his backpack. The herbivore wriggles but for all of its strength it does not have the technique necessary to move Kyouya.

"It's nice to meet you again! My name is Ryohei and we'll be extreme friends."

It is loud, however, so Kyouya must do this quickly. He pulls his arm out of his backpack, clutching a lighter. It flicks to life when Kyouya rolls his thumb along the wheel and Ryohei blinks in curiosity. The yellow herbivore only starts panicking when Kyouya moves the lighter closer to Ryohei's forehead, right where the brunet lit up.

However, struggling is useless, and Kyouya sets the herbivore's long, white hair on fire.

Ryohei tosses Kyouya off and dives into the river, creating a loud splash and wetting the grass of the bank. He pops up, his hair a lot shorter now, almost a buzz cut with the ends yellowed from being burnt. Ryohei hisses in pain at the burn on his forehead and rubs the spot, a bright yellow glow appearing for barely a split second, and his hand comes away to reveal a perfectly healed forehead.

Ryohei stumbles up onto the bank and runs his hands through his abruptly short hair. "What's Kyoko going to braid now?" he complains. "She loves practicing braids." He rubs his scalp a bit more and pauses, blinking. He grabs a lock and pulls it as far down as it can go. The ends are still yellow from being burnt but the length is longer again, just past his shoulders.

Kyouya stares in shock, slowly rising to his feet. The stunned look turns to a dangerous amusement.

Ryohei tries to run, but Kyouya is simply faster.

Admittedly, Kyouya is just having fun at this point in time. He's completely forgotten about any sort of experimentation and he's focused on the herbivore's incredible ability to shake off any injury. Kyouya thought only adults could be doctors, but this child can heal as well, so that proves his theory wrong. Yellow doesn't even need the disgusting medicine, so he's better than a doctor.

The lighter comes to life with ease, and it's only after the sixth time that Ryohei finally refuses to regrow his hair. Kyoko will just have to braid Hana's. Kyouya pouts for a moment and then lights other parts of the herbivore on fire.

It's not that Kyouya gets bored of setting the herbivore alight, it's that he gets hungry and wanders back home.

* * *

 

After lunch, Kyouya finds Sawada. He knocks politely on the door and the mother opens it, looking around in confusion. Kyouya clears his throat and she peers straight down and smiles at him.

"You must be Tsu-kun's friend from the park. Come in, come in." She holds the door open wide and pats him on the head as he enters. "Tsu-kun is upstairs, the room with a fish on it. I'll bring up some snacks later, okay dear?"

Kyouya blinks up at the woman. He reaches out and takes her larger hand in both of his. "It is a pleasure to meet a beautiful lady such as yourself," Kyouya says, bowing over her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

Her giggles and cooing follow him up the stairs.

Kyouya has successfully infiltrated the home of his target. He has also secured the loyalty of the mother herbivore due to his coded message that he's stolen from strange foreign movies with spies and lots of explosions. She will not interfere in his mission.

Kyouya finds the fish easily enough and through the open door he can see the brunet flopped over a pillow on the floor, sleeping. Kyouya steps inside the room, closing the door behind him, and nudges the brunet with his toes.

Tsuna stirs and blinks when he catches sight of Kyouya. He then bursts into flames. Neither of them know it yet, but the growing hyper intuition is thinking just as childishly as Tsuna and therefore labelling Kyouya as danger level twelve out of ten, the response being 'light up and scare the boy away'. It's not working.

Kyouya is rather impressed because clearly the herbivore has been practicing in order to please Kyouya. It's a good offering despite the crying, how short the flame lasts and the immediate lunge for the door. Kyouya grabs the herbivore by the back of its shirt and throws it back down to the floor.

"You can conjure your fire on command," Kyouya summarises in approval. "Now you need to make it last longer and then we'll move onto manipulation."

"Tsu-kun doesn't like you," the boy sobs.

Kyouya frowns and crouches down to get closer to the boy. "Stop crying. No one will save you."

The flame comes back and the crying gets louder.

Perhaps this child doesn't react to logic like Kyouya does. "I mean," Kyouya begins hesitantly. "I will give you… a hug if you co-operate." He has apparently chosen the correct words and the herbivore quietens down after a little while.

Kyouya then sets Tsuna on fire.

Tsuna shrieks and immediately leaps up, running around and flailing his hands at the fire that has now fully engulfed his hair.

Kyouya frowns in confusion at the lighter, running his fingers along the now grey exterior and trying to move the wheel. It almost looks like rock. He was going to spend a bit more time playing with it but the brunet catches the curtains on fire and Kyouya is forced to find the bathroom.

He climbs the footstool so he could reach the taps and fills the sink with water. Kyouya grabs the herbivore and drags him to the bathroom next, dunking the brunet's head under before taking the toothbrush holder and filling that with water to put out the curtains.

The herbivore does not regrow its hair. It sniffles and whimpers until Kyouya finally agrees to fix it.

"Stay here," Kyouya orders to the whimpering ball of human under the bed covers. "I will find the yellow one." He does not get a response.

Kyouya turns for the door but remembers his promise and walks to the bed, climbing onto the child sized furniture and burrowing under the covers to find the herbivore.

* * *

 

Tsuna shrieks when he sees the other boy has invaded his sanctuary, completely bypassing the universal law of 'sheets and pillows are indestructible barriers'. Tsuna's mind has imploded, his trust is frayed, and his heart is broken.

It's just wrong on so many levels that Tsuna's quilt is defective. The entire world is against him, and for the first time in his life he gives up on living because nothing matters anymore -

Small arms wrap around Tsuna, squeezing just the perfect amount as Kyouya curls around the herbivore. Tsuna's eyes snap open, peering in shock at the boy lying next to him, the silver eyed demon hugging Tsuna.

The brunet goes boneless and hugs back, the two children spending a moment to just lie there in comfort.

Tsuna makes a protesting noise, kind of a high-pitched whine, when the other boy pulls away and slips off the bed. Tsuna sits up, struggling a bit to get the blanket off him, and blinks at the retreating figure of the other boy.

Once again, Tsuna's theory has been proven correct. Hugs fix everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – lighter
> 
> Kyouya peers down at the infant and slowly takes the lighter out of his pocket.
> 
> "Fon's kid or not, I will break you," Reborn promises calmly.
> 
> The lighter flicks to life.


	4. Chapter 4

Kyouya finds the yellow one near the block of houses that it had lapped when they first met. It has two females now, a black haired one that looks slightly less herbivorous than usual and a brunette who has an odd likeness to another fluffy bunny Kyouya has.

Yellow is running its hands through its hair, talking loudly about how he managed to grow it as the black haired one looks sceptical and the brunette nods with interest.

No. No, that's not okay.

Kyouya steps in before Ryohei can demonstrate anything and glares at the two females. The yellow is his incendiary mine because Kyouya found it first, and he'll be training the herbivore so he gets to keep the fire.

He's seen what happens when adults catch wind of such things. They title it a danger and say Kyouya can't keep it because it's a 'full grown mountain lion' and 'how did you even find it, it's not native to Japan'.

Well, the pet this time is in fact native to Japan, Kyouya even checked the birth certificate, so there is no reason for an adult to protest. Still, Kyouya would like to be cautious since adults tend to be irrational and overly dramatic.

The mountain lion only mauled three people, yakuza at that, and on Kyouya's command so it was not 'out of control' nor a 'serious danger to the livelihood of Namimori citizens'.

To save the waste of time that an adult would use up pointing out ridiculous concerns, Kyouya will keep the spontaneously combusting herbivores a secret. That also means that the two female ones are not allowed to know because it's a proven fact that children can't keep their mouths shut.

Therefore the females cannot be trusted unless they also show signs of being glow sticks, in which case Kyouya can use that as a leash by insisting that it's  _their_ secret and  _all of them_  are in this together so the adults can't know or  _they will all_  be in trouble. So if Kyouya goes down, he'll take them with him.

"Oh, hello," the brunette female says with a smile. "Are you one of onii-sa-"

Yellow bursts into a fit of coughing and quickly shakes his head at the brunette, only calming when she stops talking. "Uh, yes," he says stiltedly. "This is my new extreme buddy. Extreme buddy these are my friends. Only my friends, no relation what so ever, to me, in anyway. In fact I barely even know these two. We should go now."

The two herbivores blink in confusion, right alongside Kyouya. He shrugs, uncaring, and grabs yellow by the wrist to drag him back to orange.

"Bye, bye!" the brunette calls out happily.

Kyouya pauses, pivots on a heel, and nods politely. "Good afternoon. It has been a pleasure to meet you. I hope we can be… friends in the future." Kyouya then turns and tows yellow behind him.

This acting like an herbivore thing is draining.

* * *

The mother herbivore looks happy with the new guest and hands Kyouya a platter of biscuits and some fruit. The children both troop up the stairs and the orange pokes his head out of the quilt once the door is shut behind them.

"Hi there," Ryohei says loudly. "My name is Sasagawa Ryohei and I met this extreme fellow yesterday." He gestures at Kyouya and then runs a hand through his hair before turning to the silver eyed boy. "Kyoko actually like this style, so I guess I should be thanking you, extreme fighter."

Tsuna highly disagrees with that statement. He would prefer it if the scary silver eyed boy would leave and never, ever come back. His mum has been brainwashed and as soon as the mean boy leaves, Tsuna is going straight to a police station. Not even a hug will change his mind, he is adamant about this.

"Tsu-kun's name is Sawada Tsunayoshi," Tsuna introduces. He drops off the bed and sits at the small table with Ryohei.

Both turn to Kyouya who climbs onto the end of the bed with his plate of snacks. "Hibari Kyouya. You may call me Hibari-sama or Owner, I'm not picky."

The two pause for a moment and then jolt back to life, both having mentally jumped over that last part.

As Kyouya takes it upon himself to eat all of the cherries, the loud herbivore tries to regrow the hair. It doesn't work, much to Tsuna's horror, and Kyouya rolls his eyes. He stands, having run out of cherries, and sits down beside the two.

"What were you thinking when you grew your hair by the river?" Kyouya asks. Replicating the event is the most logical way to go about making the hair grow.

"I was thinking about Kyoko worrying if she saw the mark on my forehead," Ryohei admits. "I wasn't really focused on the hair."

"Tsu-kun's mum is going to worry if she sees this," Tsuna says with a frown.

Ryohei puffs up in determination. "Don't worry, I'll help you!" He gets a concentrating look on his face and reaches out again, ruffling Tsuna's hair.

It starts growing, slowly at first and then quickly until the ends pool on the ground. Ryohei snatches away his hands in shock and Tsuna looks like he's going to cry, hands gripping fistfuls of the long hair in dismay.

"Fix this!" Tsuna whimpers at Kyouya.

_("Fix this!" Tsuna roars, the man jabbing a finger at the rather aggressive enemy famiglia lined up outside the Vongola mansion._

" _I don't see why it's my problem," Kyouya drawls.)_

"I don't see why it's my problem," Kyouya says simply. "You look fine, just leave it."

"But this isn't Tsu-kun's hair," Tsuna tries. "Mum will know."

_("But this isn't my problem either," Tsuna snaps. "I told you to put that mountain lion back and now look what happened."_

_Kyouya rolls his eyes and moves to the window, snatching a pair of scissors from Haru's sewing kit spread out on what should be a meeting table, the woman muttering something vague at him._

_Kyouya comes to a stop by the window and pulls his arm back in preparation to throw. "Fine, but this is the last time.")_

"Fine, but this is the last time," Kyouya warns, standing and moving to search the house for a pair of scissors.

He grabs the pair in the mother herbivore's room, inside a sewing kit, and tells Tsuna to stand on the bathroom floor so it'll be easier to clean up later. Kyouya himself cuts off the locks of hair until it's the same length as before. Exactly as before, in fact, thanks to his good eye for detail and steady hand with anything that can be considered a weapon.

Tsuna smiles at his reflection and turns to Kyouya. "Thank you," he says, relieved and entirely genuine.

_("Thanks," Tsuna deadpans sarcastically, having to speak loudly over the cries of rage and vengeance coming from down below. "Stabbing the leader through her leg really helped."_

_Kyouya raises an eyebrow and summons a dozen roll spheres, all of them quickly expanding. The leader, injured and a lot less confident thanks to that, calls a retreat._

" _You're welcome," Kyouya hums derisively. "I'm sure you can handle clean up yourself.")_

"I'm sure you can handle clean up yourself," Kyouya dismisses, putting the scissors back and moving to orange's room.

Ryohei and Tsuna share a look before peering down at the piles of hair. "I'll grab a garbage bag," Ryohei volunteers.

_("I'll grab a garbage bag," Ryohei chuckles._

_Tsuna just shakes his head. "I have the oddest sense of de javu.")_

"Tsu-kun has the oddest sense that this will happen again," Tsuna murmurs as he grabs a brush and dustpan from under the bathroom sink.

"Do we become hairdressers?" Ryohei wonders idly.

Tsuna squints a little at nothing in particular and then shakes his head. "Tsu-kun doesn't know, but Tsu-kun wouldn't mind being a hairdresser; it looks like fun."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake - continuation of the TYL conversation.
> 
> "I wanted to be a hairdresser," Tsuna says conversationally, watching the famiglia retreat.
> 
> "I wanted to take over the world," Byakuran responds, sprawled out over the Decimo's couch. "Actually, it's more of a present tense 'want'."
> 
> "And how is that going for you?" Tsuna drawls.
> 
> Byakuran raises an eyebrow at the reply. "You have gotten far too sassy for my liking."
> 
> "Seconded," Daemon volunteers as he passes in the hallway outside the room, a mountain lion walking beside him.
> 
> "Is that where Kyouya got the-" Tsuna facepalms.


	5. Chapter 5

Kyouya blocks out the quiet chatting of the herbivores since he finally has time to look at his damaged lighter properly. He sits at the small table and takes it out of his pocket, tilting his head to the side when he sees it.

It's stone. Legitimate stone considering it's the proper weight for an item its size and the texture is perfect. He breaks it open to test brittleness and finds the lighter fluid has also been converted.

Witchcraft.

Kyouya looks up when the two enter the room and then grabs a pillow from the herbivore's bed, holding it out to orange. "Scream at this," he orders. "But think of gold."

It takes a few tries to get started but the brunet gets the hang of it after Kyouya dangles him out of the window. It isn't gold, unfortunately, only stone. Kyouya isn't too disappointed because there's still time to train the herbivore.

The first thing to fix is the shrieking. Quite frankly it grates on the ears and Kyouya doesn't want to put up with it more than he has to, so he teaches the bunny to roar with yellow pitching in encouragingly.

By the time the pillow is entirely rock they get a half decent 'rawr'. Admittedly Kyouya could have tried to teach orange to command the power with simple words, but that would have been far less amusing.

Yellow has also managed to control his glow from what seems to be through sheer enthusiasm, able to boost the light by a significant degree for at least a few minutes. Worryingly enough, the glow responds to the amount of 'extreme's used.

In the future, after some training, Kyouya hopes to have his herbivores put on light shows by manipulating the flames away from their body and moulding the fire into dragons and wolves that can leap through the air, leaving heat waves in the atmosphere.

The addition of the stone and healing abilities are fascinating and, admittedly, deserve more attention than Kyouya is giving. It's just that fire is so much more interesting at this point in time.

A side goal is to have the herbivores be able to switch colours at will. So far they seem to have favourite colours and instinctively create orange and yellow respectively but Kyouya is certain he can train them out of that habit.

To be entirely honest, winter is soon upon Namimori and Kyouya gets cold often. His first thought regarding the flames is that it was really, really pretty. His second thought was that Kyouya could have access to his own heater wherever he is.

"Tsu-kun! Bring your friends down here, dinner is ready!" the mother herbivore calls up the stairs.

The table is quiet apart from hums of absolute pleasure because the food is delicious. Kyouya makes a mental note to keep the mother herbivore.

When she asks if anyone wants seconds she gets three small heads nodding quickly with enthusiasm. She coos at them all and takes a rather blatant photo with her phone. As the children blink, dazed at the flash, she escapes to the kitchen to grab some more food, still warm from the simmering fire of the stove.

The yellow one pipes up after they get their sight back. "You two seem like extremely good friends! How did you meet?" Ryohei wonders, imagining an epic quest that the two had to team up for.

"Um… Tsu-kun was making a bunny," Tsuna begins. "And then Tsu-kun was going to die and the fire came."

"You too?" Ryohei cries. "I thought I was going to die as well!" He laughs as if that sentence was in anyway amusing and not terrifyingly worrying.

"So death is the answer, then?" Kyouya hums. "That would make the retrieval process smoother."

Something starts twitching in the back of Tsuna's mind, almost eager, and the words come out before Tsuna can stop them. "Have you found other colours yet?"

Kyouya blinks.

Other colours? He hasn't been searching for more since he now has two herbivores with an incendiary defence. It would make sense to find more though, others with instinctual fire of different colours, because otherwise Kyouya would have to wait until the herbivores were trained enough to change their flame type.

Kyouya wants a rainbow. An entire set would so look pretty, then after, he can find other colours. Maybe a nice earthy brown or a pure white or – or a glittery one. Kyouya wants a glittery one. He'll take it everywhere with him!

Both Ryohei and Tsuna remember this moment as the point it goes downhill.

Nana returns with a bright smile, arms laden with plates, and completely oblivious to the menacing aura surrounding Kyouya.

* * *

When Kyouya and Ryohei are about to leave, Nana steps in and asks if they'd like to sleep over since it was so late already. The sky outside is dark, unnoticed by the children from the amount of light given off during testing.

Tsuna gazes up at her with a look of complete and utter betrayal.

Kyouya agrees because he still hasn't tested the nightlight function in his herbivores. Ryohei agrees as well because he likes his new friends. They both call home to tell their parents and then troop up the stairs and get ready for bed.

Tsuna's clothes are too small so Nana gives them her shirts. The clothes end up as dresses, hanging down to their knees, but it's acceptable for sleeping in.

In the bedroom, Kyouya looks between the two with a shrewd face. He shoves Ryohei onto the bed and keeps shoving until he's resting against the wall. Kyouya then climbs in after and drags Tsuna behind him. He ends up hugging Tsuna like a plushy with his back pressed against Ryohei. 

Nana takes so many photos her storage becomes full and she has to stop.

When she finally leaves, Kyouya nudges Ryohei with an elbow. "Nightlight on," he orders.

Ryohei's entire body starts glowing softly, emitting a gentle warmth. Kyouya goes boneless, pressing back against the lovely heat. He'll teach Ryohei the constellations next, so the flames project a night sky onto the walls in bright yellow.

"He's like the sun," Tsuna murmurs sleepily, feeling the warmth through Kyouya. "Are all yellows like that?"

"Sun," Ryohei echoes. "Is that what we should call my fire?"

"No," Kyouya interrupts. "That's a stupid name. Yours is Nacl for sodium chloride, which turns normal fire yellow."

The two shrug and go with it.

"What are we naming the flame?" Ryohei wonders. "We agreed that it was death, right? So Dying Will Mode maybe?"

"Tsu-kun thinks that sounds nice-" Tsuna begins.

"Incendiary Defence," Kyouya states. "Dying Will sounds too herbivore-ish. No one would be able to discuss this seriously if they're too busy laughing at the name."

And the matter is settled.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake - nomenclature
> 
> "Dying Will Flame," Reborn deadpans. "It's not that hard to remember, can you just work with me here?"
> 
> "I'm trying but it's difficult," Tsuna shrugs. "I've spent so long thinking of it as Incendiary Defence. Besides, Dino is calling it that as well."
> 
> "That's because Dino is whipped," Reborn mutters. "And not in the fun way either."
> 
> Tsuna makes a disturbed face, unsure if he was wiling to ask what the 'fun' way is exactly. He decides to play it safe and simply ignores the last few moments of conversation.


	6. Chapter 6

Tetsuya Kusakabe, tall for his age with a short pompadour pressed against his head, is currently running for his life.

A burst of killing intent slams into Tetsuya's back and almost seems to launch him forward, the child kicking into a faster sprint despite his body protesting more exercise. The remaining birds and small wildlife lurch from the crashing wave of dark intentions and take off as fast as they can, rustling trees and bushes as they call out warnings in their own tongue.

Namimori forest is dark and damp from the rain a few days ago. Tetsuya barely knows the place and every root is keen to trip him up and sacrifice him to the creature following, as if hoping the chaser will leave once it has its prey.

A blur of dark colour leaps from a tree branch to the earth in Tetsuya's peripheral vision, the creature skittering between trees before vanishing entirely into the shadows.

It's almost diner time and Tetsuya is very late and his parents will be so worried and Tetsuya is going to  _die_  here and the only thing people will find of his body is  _bones_  and torn clothing because  _that creature is going to eat him!_

A roar rips itself from his throat because if he's going down then he's going down swinging. Tetsuya whips around and charges at the last spot he saw the creature, a flare of deep green exploding from the child. The glow, harsh and carrying a bolt of something akin to electricity, zig zags through the trees and slashes deep marks into the bark, leaving trails of burning wood in the pattern of a lightning strike.

The toxic green lights up the forest in a wide arc around the child but it's too much, far too much. Tetsuya staggers and crumples, his running momentum forcing the child to roll across the forest floor before coming to a stop at the base of a large tree. Tetsuya gasps for breath, suddenly painfully tired like his energy was squeezed out of him through his pores.

A body isn't supposed to have its limiters taken off, and to an untrained flame user it can be incredibly dangerous, especially to a first generation child who is the only one of his family to unlock the Incendiary Defence.

Tetsuya is struggling to keep his eyes open but not even the threat of being eaten will make his body stand.

Footsteps, barely there in the quiet of the forest, approach from Tetsuya's left. The child tenses. He… doesn't want to look. What kind of horrors would he see if he turned to face the creature? Would it steal his soul?

Tetsuya shakes away the thoughts and lets his head loll to the side, blinking up at the creature he's been running from. The figure is wrapped in a dark cloak that flares behind it as it moves. It crouches over Tetsuya, head tilting to the side like a curious bird.

"I like green," the creature mutters.

Tetsuya blinks. It sounds like a child and its height looks like a child, smaller than Tetsuya.

"I'll keep you," it continues and the cloak is suddenly pulled off and dropped beside Tetsuya's head as the creature stands. "Sodium borate," the creature murmurs in contemplation. "Nabo?"

Tetsuya gazes up at the smaller boy who hovers over his newly caught prize, looking smug. It's finally too much and the adrenaline crash takes Tetsuya into unconsciousness.

* * *

Kyouya heads out the next day and retraces the steps to his newest glow stick's den, stopping by the other two houses he's memorised to pick up his herbivores.

He had to call reinforcements yesterday because he wasn't able to carry green by himself, but it was a good bonding experience for the herbivores despite green being unconscious.

Even though it was pretty dark last night they were able to find green's house easily enough, and much to Kyouya's delight; it was a family of unicorns.

Kyouya should not pick favourites, it's detrimental to pack bonding, but he likes green the best. The other child has yet to grow into his horn, the swirl of black only short compared to the parents, but one day Kyouya's unicorn will be magnificent.

Ignoring the two bouncing herbivores behind him, Kyouya steps up to green's house and rings the doorbell. The mother unicorn answers with a smile and another thank you for returning Tetsuya after he exhausted himself at the park.

Kyouya leaves the herbivore secret code to orange who can speak the language very well. The silver eyed boy thinks that the fluffy hair might have something to do with it, perhaps a facet of the code that Kyouya has yet to pick up on.

* * *

Tetsuya's mother calls him down and he groans but rolls off the bean bag. He's still a little bit tired from yesterday, and rather concerned that his mother believes the creature to actually be human. She wouldn't stop going on about how cute and well mannered 'Kyo-kun' is.

You do not give nicknames to homicidal changelings.

Tetsuya grumbles but drags himself down the stairs, only to find the creature and two others inside his house. One has a backpack and looks like he's adorably excited while the other bounces on his toes and mumbles 'extreme friendship' under his breath.

While Tetsuya is still frozen at the foot of the stairs, his mother returns with a backpack and hands it down to Tetsuya, absent mindedly prodding her pompadour back into place. The creature looks worryingly fascinated with the motion.

"You let them inside?" Tetsuya blurts out in horror.

"Have a good time playing with your friends, and remember to be back for lunch, okay sweetie?" she chirps happily, completely ignoring the very real threat standing in the living room. She smiles and pats Tetsuya's regent hair style before she ushers them all out and shuts the door in Tetsuya's face.

He tenses and slowly turns.

* * *

Kyouya steps forward, short enough that he slides under the pompadour instead of getting hit on the head. "Resistance is futile," he proclaims.

The boy still tries to run.

Kyouya leaves his tonfa in the bag orange is carrying in favour of dashing after the escaping herbivore. He bounces off the letter box so he has the assistance of gravity when he tackles the larger form of green, and they hit the grass of the front lawn. Kyouya flicks his lighter to life.

"Wait!" orange shrieks, skidding to a stop beside the two with yellow not far behind. They need to band together right now and save their new friend from Kyouya's odd form of playing. "Uh, maybe we could show him?" Tsuna tries. "You know, because your lighter might get destroyed again?"

Kyouya hums but tucks away the lighter and stands, moving away from the wide-eyed Tetsuya. "You," Kyouya says imperiously, gesturing at green. "They will teach you to explode properly."

They find out Tetsuya has electricity when he runs again and accidentally fries a car, overloading the entire thing when Kyouya chases him straight into it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake - lighter 2
> 
> Byakuran stares at the shorter male who seems to be slowly circling closer, some kind of weapon hidden Kyouya's hand.
> 
> "Uh, Tsunayoshi, can you come in here?" Byakuran calls out, unwilling to make a move for the door and startle Kyouya into attacking. "Your Skylark is... Tsunayoshi? Tsunayoshi!"


	7. Chapter 7

Tsuna stumbles forward and tips over, faceplanting into a sitting Tetsuya's pompadour. Ryohei is already passed out over to the side and the portion of forest they're in is singed and scuffed up. All three are exhausted, but progress was made.

It still seems that only Tsuna is able to light his flames, but both Ryohei and Tetsuya can manage a glow so fierce it looked like fire and electricity.

Tsuna definitely unleashed something bad when he asked about other colours because now Kyouya keeps disappearing for a while and then presenting random children of Namimori to the three, all of the kids terrified in a strangely exasperated manner that Kyouya normally causes.

The good thing is that Tsuna has made a lot of friends, exploring their new superpowers together. Plus the odd restlessness in the back of his head has calmed to a steady warmth, pulsing brighter when a new child is dragged over by Kyouya.

It's not really so bad, if you ignore the fact that Kyouya has abducted quite a few of them by now, and the police have taken to patrolling the streets with an intense determination.

* * *

Kyouya has been finding lots of other children with an Incendiary Defence now that he understands what activates them. It's primal, raw fear. The kind that makes your mind blank and your legs shake and sends the strongest into a sobbing mess.

Kyouya is very, very good at making people fear him.

* * *

Kensuke throws himself around another corner of the preschool's hallway and desperately looks for an adult, or just anyone at all who can help him. A rustle of that black cloak and brief, quiet taps on the linoleum flooring behind Kensuke rips a whimper from the child.

The sobbing only starts when he turns another corner and reaches a dead end. His momentum carries him and he hits the wall with his palms out to absorb the impact before whipping around and placing his back to the wall.

There's no one behind him.

Kensuke shakes with fear and he scans the corners, looking for any sign even as hope bubbles up within him at the thought of the creature being gone. Then he looks up, and screams.

* * *

Kyouya peers around at the half-dissolved wall and the unconscious child at his feet.

Like previous renditions, Kyouya briefly wonders where the wall has gone because there's no rubble or anything to imply that the hole in the wall isn't meant to be there. The edges are jagged, sure, but it's clean. No scratches, no burnt paint, just a hole.

He shakes away the thoughts about disintegration and focuses on the child, one Mochida Kensuke. "Another red," Kyouya murmurs. He doesn't really need another, but he mentally adds the discovery to the herbivore's profile anyway, right next to the child's home address in case Kyouya needs to find him again.

Kyouya has three of the reds now, and while he could count it as a coincidence, he's pretty sure they're the most statistically common colour.

Perhaps he's looking at this the wrong way and it's his method that's failing him. True, he did come across a variety when randomly selecting herbivores, but if he's going to do this properly he needs to streamline the process.

Therefore, if he wants more colours quickly he should find links between the reds and differences between the red, green, yellow and orange.

Kyouya turns and walks away, leaving the child unconscious on the floor and the caretakers plus other kids still locked in the classrooms.

He links socioeconomic background first, but his herbivores are all middle class, so he tries area of living but they're scattered around Namimori with no distinct geographical lines. He then goes for food and ancestry and classroom and winds up looking at personality-horoscopes for some reason, because the information he's reading through is in the police station and the particular officer who owns the desk is a fan.

He blinks and compares the personalities. The orange is like a bunny, the green is a tiger, yellows are bears and the reds are all wolves.

Alright, so Kyouya will try this first and return if it doesn't pan out. He erases his search history through the files then slides off the rolling chair and walks around the desk to the door of the private room.

An herbivore opens it for him before he can do it himself and Kyouya nods in polite thanks before walking under the stunned man's arm and across the precinct's tiled floor. The police kind of stare at the child that none of them saw walk in.

"What are you all doing?!" the first man cries. "Grab the Hibari!"

Kyouya picks up his pace and baseball slides under one woman's legs to reach the front entrance, disappearing into a crowd of primary schoolers walking by in a large mass on an excursion. The police groan but since they can't exactly charge into a herd of tiny children, they hover at the edges and try to spy Kyouya.

The man whose office got broken into quickly tries to find what the demon child was looking for. Unfortunately, the kid seems to have gotten smarter about covering his tracks despite literally walking out the front door in sight of the whole precinct.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – colour palette
> 
> "If Ryohei and I have a baby, would it be a Lightning?" Takeshi muses.
> 
> Hayato stares for a moment, incredulous. "First of all, that's not how flames work. Second of all, you're both male, that's not how humans work."
> 
> "What if we were females, then?"
> 
> "Do you think before you open your mouth?" Hayato asks, genuinely curious.
> 
> "But yellow and blue make-"
> 
> "Just stop."


	8. Chapter 8

At this point in time, Kyouya has it down to an art form. He finds two more greens and then one other yellow.

The happy surprise is a little girl with wide eyes the colour of soft purple.

She's standing outside a five-star hotel and holding a tiny child's suitcase while a woman with shoulder length hair and a fancy deep green dress pays a taxi driver. Another adult is taking out two larger suitcases, the man in a business suit with a golden watch on his wrist.

Kyouya adjusts the backpack on his shoulders and slides up beside the small family, keeping pace with them into the building. The family believes him to belong to an adult in the hotel and the strangers around think he's part of the family, so absolutely no one stops him as Kyouya crosses the marbled floor.

In fact, the only person to even look at him in question is the girl, who shies away like a startled fawn when Kyouya meets her gaze. She tries to hide behind the adults when Kyouya keeps watching her and gets shakier when Kyouya approaches. The parents don't seem to mind a strange child staking their daughter around their knees.

The little girl lets out a squeak when she ducks left around the mother and encounters Kyouya. He simply grabs her hand and doesn't let go despite her enthusiastic flailing.

The parents receive the hotel key cards and one is placed inside the man's wallet while the other is held by the woman. As the four of them head for the elevator, the girl makes a nervous sound, unsure if Kyouya is a threat or just really friendly. He takes her tiny suitcase so she can't run away even if she gets out of his hold, and they both follow the adults.

In the elevator, the girl tries to merge into the metal wall, their linked hands stretched as far as their small arms can reach. Kyouya keeps staring, absolutely certain in the way only a child can be, that his theory is correct. The girl could be another orange with the way she's so nervous, but it's more of a wariness at being in sight rather than just having a scared disposition.

Kyouya decides that he's found a new colour. The lift lets out a tinny sounding 'ding' and the doors open. The girl lurches forward, swinging in an arc because their hands are still linked and have reached the maximum length, then grabs onto the back of the woman's dress.

Kyouya stays still just long enough for the girl to have to let go since the mother moves forward, and only then does he follow the parents. He tracks them to their hotel room, a penthouse suite, and then politely sets the tiny suitcase at the threshold while the parents open the door.

He uses their connected hands to reel the girl in and then forces a hug. She squeaks again and snatches her limb back as soon as Kyouya lets go, immediately grabbing her suitcase then darting past her parents and into the hotel room.

When she's out of sight, there's no one watching to see Kyouya take the man's wallet.

* * *

The male herbivore's wallet has a lot of cards and receipts and cash, but the important part is the driver's license, which lists an address* almost a day away. So Kyouya simply decides to save time and effort by keeping the girl with him.

He picks an empty guest room in his house, writes 'Girl' on a piece of paper, and tapes it to the door. He steps back to survey his work and nods proudly.

* * *

Kyouya returns that night, because for some reason herbivores dislike the dark and get twitchier. He waits until the only staff member in the lobby looks away and then paces to the elevator, taking it up to the top floor and then walking down the short corridor to the girl's room.

He uses the man's key card to get in and silently slides past the bathroom, closet and kitchen to find the open lounge room/dining area. A shut door has soft snoring behind it and he logically assumes that the family is all sequestered away in the bedroom.

Fortunately, he's wrong. A three-seater couch which is pressed up against one wall holds a small lump under a quilt, and a pillow is peeking out of one end. He silently crosses the room, places his backpack on the floor nearby, and moves back to a shadowy corner.

He places his hand on the wall and drags his fingernails down. It takes a few moments but the lump stirs and then freezes. Kyouya moves to the kitchen, barely able to see over the marble-top island bench, and watches as the girl flips the blankets off in one brave move and tries to find the source of the noise.

He waits until she's under the blanket again and taps, slow and deliberate on the counter. The lump quivers but there's no motion to get up again. Kyouya moves around the room, always getting closer and always making some kind of noise.

Eventually he reaches the couch, making his steps heavier as he goes and causing the lump to curl in even more. Then he grips an edge of the blanket and in one smooth movement, he rips the quilt away and clamps his free hand over the girl's mouth to stifle the scream.

She explodes in a firestorm of indigo.

For barely a moment he sees a faded shield of silver, spiked and bloody, come to existence between the girl and Kyouya.

* * *

The amount of terror coursing through Nagi in that instant not only activates her flame, it latches on to something - _someone-_  that can help her.

Deep in a basement laboratory, Mukuro's eyes snap open at the strange tug on his mind.

* * *

Kyouya snatches his hands back in shock at the sudden manifestation of a shield and her single, piercing scream draws the two adults who immediately flick on the lights when they slam open the bedroom door. Kyouya calmly and clinically unzips his backpack and takes out his tonfa, swiftly taking care of the two herbivores.

When he turns back, the girl is sitting up on the couch, dead silent with one bright red eye that seems to glow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Japanese driving licenses have an address on them. Or so the wiki page tells me.
> 
> ...
> 
> Omake – merging
> 
> Chrome stands in the corner of the meeting room, a small paper plate with little treats in one hand, and people-watching out of habit. She slides a glance around and stills when she realises Kyouya is watching her.
> 
> She slowly reaches over and gives to the plate to a confused Mukuro, then steps back and dissolves into the wall.


	9. Chapter 9

He tucks his tonfa away and pulls the backpack on under the girl's watchful eyes before walking over to her and taking her hand. She doesn't startle or shy away like before. Her expression seems empty, like she's half gone.

Maybe Kyouya scared her too much?

"My name is Hibari Kyouya," he says in greeting. "I would appreciate it if you did not scream again."

The girl just continues to stare for a long moment then nods in a jerky, wooden motion. She stands from the couch and heads for the door without a hint of hesitation, barely pausing to put on shoes.

Kyouya lets himself be dragged along behind from their still clasped hands, grabbing the tiny child suitcase along the way. He wonders if this still technically counts as a crime. Maybe the girl is now an accomplice?

He soon dismisses the thought because either way, he owns the police. Legality is more of an option when crime has no consequences.

As they walk out of the hotel her movements get smoother and more natural while their hands slip from each other's. When their feet hit the pavement outside the building, her eyes have come back to life filled with curiosity. She looks around a bit and locks onto the sky full of stars above, entranced with the dots of light.

They walk down the dark street in silence but eventually Kyouya turns to the girl. "What's your name?"

* * *

Mukuro raises an eyebrow since the other boy seems to have deadpanned the question with little to no care for the answer. "It's Muku-" Mukuro pauses for a long moment and blurts out the first thing he thinks of. "Kuromu - Chrome. My name is Chrome. Hi."

"Okay," Kyouya says simply. "Your new name is now Kcl."

"Kehl?" Mukuro echoes in annoyance, wondering if it means anything in the strange language he's now suddenly fluent in. "I just gave you her new na - my name. I just gave you my name."

"No one cares," Kyouya states. "You're purple," he explains. "Potassium Chloride added to fire makes an indigo colour."

"Oh," Mukuro says slowly in dawning realisation. "You mean I'm a Mist."

"I thought you were Chrome," Kyouya murmurs in confusion, eyebrows drawing together.

"No, no," Mukuro sighs, waving a hand. "My name is Chrome, but the purple fire is called Mist flames."

"That's a stupid name," Kyouya deadpans.

'Brutal,' a girl's voice mutters in the back of Mukuro's consciousness.

"Listen, you little civilian," Mukuro begins with irritation. "I didn't come up with it. Everyone in the mafia knows what Dying Will Fla-"

"Incendiary Defence," Kyouya interrupts in annoyance. "I don't know why you herbivores keep labelling it Dying Intent whatever, but that name is ridiculous."

Mukuro just throws his hands up and gives in. "Fine, call it whatever you want." He huffs and looks around. "By the way, where are we?"

Kyouya shrugs. "My town."

Mukuro slants an annoyed glare at the civilian. "What country?"

"My country."

A light giggle rings around in Mukuro's head and he frowns, grumbling, "Shut up, Chrome."

'It's Nagi,' she corrects.

"Not anymore it isn't," Mukuro argues spitefully.

* * *

Kyouya blinks at the girl in confusion but decides to just ignore how she's talking to herself. Kyouya has issues with impulse control so he can hardly tell her off for a little schizophrenia.

They have to part ways around an adult's legs and once the lady is gone they move together again.

"Okay," the girl says pointedly as if speaking over someone else. She turns to Kyouya, determined. "What language are we speaking?"

Kyouya opens his mouth to answer.

"And I swear on my last remaining eye, if you say 'my language', I will hurt you," she hisses out with a dark intensity.

"Our language."

* * *

The newly named Chrome stumbles when she's suddenly pushed to the forefront of the oddly synchronous mind they seem to be sharing. Mukuro fades to a blip of anger somewhere distant and Chrome takes a moment to get used to controlling her body again.

The strange boy doesn't stop walking, though he does slow down a bit. Chrome quickly hurries forward and falls into step once more.

She remains quiet, more used to being in the background, but the boy doesn't seem to mind it. It's actually a rather nice walk through Namimori, kind of like a sightseeing tour because Chrome is on holiday right now.

They end up at a large house and Kyouya shows her a room inside with the sign 'Girl' taped to the door. She slides into the comfy bed and Kyouya drops the suitcase near the wall before going to sleep in his own room.

Settled under the fluffy and thick quilt, Chrome wonders when the appropriate time would be to find a police officer and inform them that she's been kidnapped.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – blatant
> 
> "Oh, it's Japanese!" Mukuro suddenly cries in delight, turning to Hayato. "I'm speaking Japanese right now."
> 
> Hayato glances around the otherwise empty room, clearly looking for help. "You didn't know what language you were speaking? We're in Japan and you - Christ, Mukuro, you're fifteen. How is that even possible?"
> 
> "It just never occurred to me until now," Mukuro says, still joyful at his realisation despite Hayato's blatant incredulity.
> 
> Hayato sighs heavily and shakes his head. "You and Takeshi, I swear to God."


	10. Chapter 10

Chrome startles awake, spluttering in the sudden water that has her drenched in a few seconds. She flips the covers off and sits up, the water flow stopping soon after. She blinks at Kyouya in shock, the boy standing at her bedside with a watering can held with two hands and sunlight streaming in through a window.

"I forgot to water you yesterday," Kyouya says simply. "I hope you don't wilt. I just got you."

Chrome stares.

Half way through explaining that she doesn't need to be watered like a plant, Chrome freezes and gapes at the small shelf near the bed. She must have been rather tired last night because she didn't notice the shrunken heads staring at her with heavy grimaces and leathery skin.

"Do you like them?" Kyouya asks innocently. "They're the only dolls I could find in the house."

* * *

Before Kyouya notices, almost two hours have gone by while he played dolls with Kcl. He leaves her to the rather complex soap opera she's come up with and tracks down breakfast in the kitchen.

It's there, like always, and he eats his share before taking the rest to his purple. She doesn't even notice him, too intent on interrogating the sister's husband. Apparently Kyouya missed a murder-suicide.

He spends the rest of the morning outside, finding girl things to bribe his purple with. His backpack ends up full of rocks, miscellaneous things and colourful glitter. The glitter is for him.

Kyouya also kidnaps yellow's not-sister, because humans are sociable creatures and he doesn't want Chrome to be lonely.

When Ryohei asks where Kyoko is, Kyouya explains all of this in a calm tone, as if his reasoning is entirely logical and there should be no point of contention that Ryohei can bring up in an argument against the decision.

Though for some reason Ryohei still panics, insists Kyoko is not his sister, and distracts Kyouya with news that Tsuna can fly.

Kyouya, not knowing that Ryohei blurted out the first thing he thought of, went to hunt down his orange.

* * *

"What do you mean you can't fly?" Kyouya says in confusion.

"Why do you think Tsu-kun can fly?" Tsuna retorts in shock, waving his arms around to express his utter disbelief. "How on earth would Tsu-kun be able to fly?"

Something tells Tsuna that  _bad things_  are about to happen.

* * *

Kyouya fixes the last carabiner to the harness and tugs on it, the rope holding well to the anchor point set into the rocks.

"I want to go home," Tsuna says, completely freaked out but managing to use 'I' instead of 'Tsu-kun' in a desperate attempt to communicate with the insane black haired boy.

Kyouya ignores Tsuna and moves sideways a bit before very calmly Sparta-kicking the child off the cliff face.

Tsuna can't even scream; that's how terrified he is.

The rope uncoils with a long, drawn out hiss from how fast the speed is, rushing over the edge of the cliff. It comes to an abrupt halt, snapping straight and yanking on the anchor point. It stays attached though because Kyouya's equipment gets the job done.

Kyouya peeks over the edge but there's no herbivore on the end, yet the harness is still there. He blinks, wondering if he killed fluffy. Kyouya is rather confused now because he's certain he hooked the herbivore into the harness properly.

Someone clears their throat behind him and he whirls around to find Tsuna hovering a meter off the ground, his hands gushing fire as well as his forehead.

"Perhaps you could just ask me if you want to test something," Tsuna deadpans.

"Why would I do that?" Kyouya asks. "Surprises are much better."

Tsuna makes a face.

* * *

When Kyouya gets home, he finds that the brunette has been taken away by her not-brother and Chrome went with them to have lunch.

He'll just have to do the lighter test later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – lighter 3
> 
> "Oh, what is that smell?" Tsuna blurts out in horror as soon as he steps into the room.
> 
> I-Pin doesn't move from her meditation pose but she does say, "It's incense, a calming peach and lavender."
> 
> "It smells like burning children," Tsuna coughs, pinching his nose closed.
> 
> I-Pin opens her eyes and raises an eyebrow at Tsuna. "And how would you know what that smells like?"
> 
> Tsuna shakes his head and backs out of the room. "It was before your time."


	11. Chapter 11

After Chrome returns from the lovely (but very loud) Sasagawa home, she finds her bed stuffed with rocks. She wonders if it's a threat.

Mukuro tunes in then and blinks out at the world through soft indigo eyes. He catches sight of the quilt cover that has been pushed off to reveal a mountain of stones in all shapes and colours. "Oh, that's sweet, he gave you rocks," Mukuro coos.

'Is it a… boy thing?' Chrome asks hesitantly.

Mukuro shrugs Chrome's shoulders. "At first I thought it was a threat, but this is probably the least terrifying thing he's done to you."

'Oh,' Chrome murmurs in understanding and then smiles happily in the back of their shared mind. 'That's so cute. He gave me rocks.'

Potassium Chlorides are very adaptable people.

Mukuro moves forward and starts shifting the pile off the bed and onto the floor, but pauses when he gets a bit deeper into the mountain of stones. The two of them peer down through the same eyes at a faint hint of silver glinting under the ceiling lights.

Mukuro starts moving the rocks again, more cautiously this time, and slowly reveals yet another pile on the bed. This time it's made up of knives –most of them covered in blood- and a couple of brass knuckles, plus one police-issued gun.

'We might need an adult,' Chrome suggests in a small voice.

Mukuro scoffs with derision and simply starts moving the weapons off as well.

Hidden inside the weapons is a beautiful kimono set, which makes the most sense out of everything here, but then wrapped in the silky material is a rectangular glass terrarium filled with sand and a black scorpion – who is lying in purple glitter.

Mukuro blinks and takes a moment to find the proper words. "Okay, so… I'm trying to find a pattern…"

'Have we definitely dismissed the "threat" idea?' Chrome offers up.

"He would have told us," Mukuro reassures Chrome, but that thought isn't exactly reassuring. "We're keeping the scorpion, right?" he adds on.

"So you like the girl things?"

Mukuro whirls around and stares at Kyouya standing in the doorway. "Did you just say…" he cuts himself off turns back to the pile on the bed. "Oh, now I'm seeing the pattern."

'Wait,' Chrome interrupts. 'No, sorry, I'm still really confused.'

"Girls love weapons," Mukuro states. "And the rocks are actually kind of pretty. I shouldn't have to explain this, Chrome, it should be instinctive for you."

Chrome slumps. 'Whatever you say, Mukuro.'

Kyouya watches the girl talk to herself, rather curious as to where the second half of the conversation is happening.

Either way, he considers his pet-keeping methods a success.

* * *

The next day, Chrome is woken up by Romuku tapping on the glass enclosure around the scorpion. She climbs out of bed, wincing at the pain in her back because she can't seem to get rid of all the rocks from the bed, and then goes to feed the black scorpion that Mukuro named.

Kyouya had insisted yesterday that the glitter was edible and so it was perfectly acceptable food for the creature. Chrome didn't bother arguing, because Kyouya's logic was infectious, and simply snuck out to the pet shop herself.

She wanders downstairs with Romuku on her head and encounters Kyouya in a light blue primary school uniform. There's another neatly folded pile of clothes in his arms, a second uniform, which he then shoves at Chrome.

"You're late," Kyouya says. "Eat and get dressed, we need to go to school."

* * *

Kyouya drops off Kcl with the not-sister and the other not-friend before rounding the building to where he instructed his glow sticks to wait for him.

They turn at his approach and wait quietly like the wonderfully obedient incendiary grenades that they are. Kyouya has been recruiting with a very special goal in mind and has accumulate dozens more since finding his purple girl.

He stops in front of them and they glow with different colours in greeting – first the reds, then the one orange, then yellows, and so on - all the way down the rainbow. Unfortunately, the colour scheme is interrupted by the loss of his purple and he has yet to find a blue, but it shouldn't take too long to complete the set.

Kyouya smirks.

* * *

The teacher blinks at the mass of kids who toddle in, with the troublesome boy who tends to leave mid-class leading the pack. He moves to a stool at the front of the classroom and tries to clamber up but it's just too tall. He hooks a leg on the seat but seems to be having difficulty.

A taller boy with a pompadour hairstyle moves forward and helps push him up. When the smaller kid gets to his feet on top of the stool, he reaches out and grabs the taller one's hand as an anchor to keep himself balanced.

The teacher presses a hand to their mouth, trying to keep in a coo at the adorableness.

The boy straightens and turns to the crowd of children accumulated in the room. "Today," the child begins. " _We rise_."

The teacher freezes as the children roar, throwing up tiny fists that are clutching red armbands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – memories
> 
> "It's like an Asian Xanxus," Levi blurts out.
> 
> Lussuria lets out a relieved sigh. "I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that."
> 
> "It's kind of nostalgic," Bel snickers.
> 
> "Now wait a second," Xanxus cuts in. "I was never that bad."
> 
> "I think you're remembering wrong," Squalo drawls.


	12. Chapter 12

There is something whispering to Tsuna.

Something inside is telling him that he needs more, that something is going to happen. He needs as many as he can get because they have to be strong for what is coming. But Tsuna doesn't know what he needs more of, or why he needs it. He tries to ask the something inside him but it just keeps repeating that Tsuna has to get  _more_.

It's a good thing that Tsuna has no concept of mental illness, otherwise he would very worried.

"Kyouya?" Tsuna murmurs.

Kyouya looks at the younger boy from where he's currently taken over Tsuna's bed, crayons scattered around him as he draws pictures of incredibly realistic weapons all over Tsuna's actual picture book.

Tsuna sits up from the beanbag he's been lying on ever since Kyouya stormed in and rolled him off his own bed. "Kyouya, I think we need more," Tsuna says, not sure what he means but maybe the older boy will understand.

Kyouya smirks. "That's exactly what I was thinking, herbivore."

He drops the crayon he holds, immediately sliding off the bed gracefully and then hauling Tsuna up by the boy's collar before dragging the orange outside.

* * *

"Kyouya, no!" Tsuna shrieks, diving forward and barely managing to stop the older boy from smashing the window of the pet store. "That is not how you buy a scorpion!"

Kyouya looks at the brunet hanging off his arm and scoffs. "Who said I was going to buy it?"

The poor shop's owner is currently cowering behind the counter, having a panicked and hushed conversation with the police. "Yes, the Hibari. What? Of course I'm not trying to stop him, I'm not suicidal!"

"Let's go," Tsuna tries. "I don't think I meant 'more scorpions'."

Really, one is more than enough. Romuku is adorable, but only when he's with Chrome. Alone, the scorpion tends to sting and pinch and cover everything in glitter. Tsuna swears it laughs at him with an odd 'kufufufu'.

Kyouya huffs but does leave the store, having only done psychological damage. (Tsuna counts this as a win.) The brunet also has to steer Kyouya away from an arts and crafts store because more glitter is probably not needed either.

Honestly, Tsuna has no idea why he thought Kyouya would understand the vague sentence even when Tsuna doesn't. The whisper repeats, even now as the two children walk down a street with neat little houses.  _Find more, build your strength, go left._

"Go left?" Tsuna blurts out, confused.

Kyouya turns left. Straight into a house.

* * *

Shoichi screams in terror, scrambling backwards across the kitchen floor.

The red-haired boy's face is somehow not hurting anymore despite having been hit with what feels like a small truck. Shoichi thinks it might be the adrenalin, because surely it can't be the yellow glow that engulfed him for a second. He can't possibly have just gotten super powers, right?

Just as Shoichi thinks this, the brunet flies forward -in the air, without any visible device- and catches the thrown weapon which is some kind of wooden police baton.

Okay, so when Shoichi daydreams about being a superhero like the characters on TV, he's not actually serious. He may be five years old, but he understands more than most adults. He fully recognises that he would be a horrible superhero.

He gets stomach aches –like right now, actually- and while it's not debilitating, it should hopefully disqualify him from superhero duties. Shoichi can at least take a sick day off for this battle, right?

The demonic creature smirks. The brunet seems to realise what he's done, because he abruptly drops the caught weapon and flies out of the window. The demon snatches up his torture implement and leaps out of the window as well, most likely intending on eating the brunet alive.

Shoichi feels an oddly detached sense of pity for the other boy, because at this point his mind has skipped right over the 'why' and landed on the 'how'. He has no room for concern or fear anymore, just science.

His parents return home to find a shattered dining table and cratered wall, plus one Shoichi madly typing on his computer, trying to research what just happened. He's found some vague sites but landed on a gold mine of information when he started chatting with two other people.

"Sho?" his mother calls out gently, unwilling to step inside the room cluttered with sharp metal scraps and naked electrical wiring. "Sweetheart, we love you and all, but you need to stop doing experiments inside the house."

Shoichi mumbles something back and his parents shake their heads with fond smiles. They used to be the same when they were kids.

* * *

His poor, poor marshmallows have been knocked off his desk accidentally and are now scattered across the floor of the room. Byakuran thinks he should pick them up (three second rule) but he's too busy struggling for air, currently doubled over his keyboard and convulsing with laughter.

The friend (who doesn't know he's a friend yet) is currently typing questions to Byakuran and another boy called Spanner, just innocent things like; 'How do I make the fire?' and 'How do I make the fire  _better_?'.

Shoichi has also expressed concern over a possessed child eating the flesh of another boy. 'Does it grant the demon more power? Should I use holy water or grenades if it attacks me again?'

Byakuran gasps desperately for air and wipes away tears of laughter, barely managing to not fall off his chair.

He has the best damn universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – parallel
> 
> Byakuran chuckles at Tsuna's question. "You're doing very well compared to most other versions of the world. Perhaps top ten, and right below the one where Reborn is a Sky user." Byakuran shrugs. "I think that one is so high up because everyone is too scared to start anything bad in that 'verse."
> 
> Tsuna slowly turns to where Reborn is sitting next to him, the hitman appearing unbearably smug. Kyouya, sitting on a couch further along, looks as if he's taken Byakuran's 'right below' comment as a challenge. He is now eyeing Reborn speculatively to figure out how scared he has to make people for this universe to pull ahead.
> 
> Tsuna reminds himself to update his will.


	13. Chapter 13

"I'm not sure, Iemitsu," Timoteo says regretfully. "The Gesso have been making… odd movements lately. Perhaps just put off the visit to Japan for a while."

Iemitsu says nothing for a long moment but eventually nods and leaves the office.

* * *

Tsuna rolls over in his sleep, the tension suddenly leaving him after days of constant warnings. Kyouya snuffles a bit in annoyance at his pillow moving and kicks Tsuna off the bed. The thump Tsuna's body makes as he collides with the floor startles Ryohei awake, but the child just mumbles something about extremeness and passes out again.

* * *

When Kyouya is patrolling his Namimori in the morning, he finds his purple girl walking down the street with a determined expression on her face. He slides up beside her and follows for a few blocks before finally asking where she's going.

"I want to check on something," the herbivore explains. "We'll have to catch a train since it's pretty far away-"

"No," Kyouya rejects. He despises public transport and any other means that makes crowding a necessity. Instead, he deviates from the concrete path and crosses the road to a parked car that sits there.

Kyouya disappears into a small restaurant nearby and emerges with a bit of blood on his shoe and car keys. He helps purple into the car since it's so much taller than either of them, then moves around the other side and climbs into the driver's seat. He closes the door and puts on his seat belt.

There's a long pause when Kyouya realises that there's no way he can reach the peddles, and even to see over the dashboard he'd have to kneel on the seat.

* * *

"You didn't think this through, did you?" Mukuro comments through the girl, her presence a quiet watcher in the back of his mind, still a bit sleepy from the early hour.

"I had a vague plan," Kyouya protests.

Mukuro chuckles with a 'kufufufu' and unbuckles his seat belt. "No worries, I'll take care of this."

The mission doesn't need to be rushed so technically they could just go home and plot out another method of transportation. However, Mukuro wants everything in place for when he does escape the Estraneo. He's already decided that he'll wait until he's the strongest they can possibly make him, and only then will he break out and destroy them all with the very eye they forced on him.

Chrome curls around his mind like she's trying to protect him. Mukuro doesn't need it. He's not the one who's going to be in pain.

* * *

Kyouya and Mukuro hop out of the car, the man they kidnapped still shaking in terror and gripping the steering wheel tightly. Mukuro waves him off and the car screeches away from the curb, quickly disappearing around a corner.

Mukuro glances around and spots a tall building that looks like a hotel. A good landmark in case they get lost. "We'll meet back there at noon," Mukuro says, pointing at it.

Kyouya is already wandering off.

The child walks around for a bit, soon finding himself in a residence district with neat little houses. He jumps over a backyard fence because there's a puppy there and he wants to pet it, but gets side-tracked when he sees the most beautiful wisp of light indigo further out.

Kyouya quickly hugs the puppy then jumps another fence to reach the open bit of bushland that borders this side of the suburbs. Thin trees are scattered about the place, and shrubs take over the ground, somehow growing despite the ground being largely made up of huge rocks. He darts after the faint purple seen between the trees and ends up running parallel to the backyard fences.

Kyouya skids to a stop when he finds that the flame belongs to a tall man in something like a military uniform. The man is gazing at a particular house with a dark expression, half hatred and half excitement.

Kyouya promptly launches an attack because this is the first adult he's seen with flames and Kyouya wants the man for his collection.

* * *

Daemon Spade, currently corporeal and scoping out the Shimon household for his next mass murder, turns around at the gush of bloodlust that washes over him. He finds a small, black haired Alaude trying to kill him, and it's so nostalgic that he actually smiles.

His next action is completely automatic, a deep-seated habit from his time alive.

Daemon whirls around the airborne child's attack until he's behind it and grabs the boy around the middle with illusionary vines. He then hurls the tiny Alaude as high as he possibly can. He usually did this when his skylark was attacking him, always with illusions of course because by the time you're within arm's reach of the platinum blond, you're already dead.

Daemon glances around, rather embarrassed at being caught off guard like that, but no one is here to see his slip. He calmly brushes down his clothes and looks up, having to raise a hand to block the sun and shade his eyes. He scans the soft blue sky but he can't see the child.

Maybe he catapulted the tiny skylark a bit too far. In his defence, he wasn't really thinking, and he was judging his throwing power according to Alaude's weight plus the man's ability to land and not die.

Daemon wonders if he should just leave and pretend none of this happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – skylarks are meant to fly
> 
> "So you haven't seen Alaude?" Giotto clarifies, his doubt practically spelt out for anyone to see.
> 
> "He might be in the gardens," Daemon suggests like he's just being helpful, but it's obvious that the Mist is trying really hard to not laugh.
> 
> Not a second later, the blond drops out of absolutely nowhere, sticking the landing but also cratering the ground from his speed. Daemon is sprinting away in the next moment and Alaude gives chase.
> 
> .
> 
> "Really?" Tsuna deadpans.
> 
> "Yeah, I have no idea what Kyouya is doing right now," Daemon says casually, pretending he can't see the rapidly expanding Roll sphere above him.
> 
> .
> 
> "Do you know where Fon might be?" I-Pin asks.
> 
> Daemon shakes his head and does not look up.


	14. Chapter 14

Alaude is not going to be happy about his descendent being killed.

The only reason Daemon is corporeal right now is because he's leeching off several strong Mist users all over the world. If they die and he can't replace them fast enough, he'll be trapped in the Vongola Mist ring. That would be fine if the ring wasn't also connected to the other Guardians.

Giotto's guilt trip is easily dismissed. Alaude, able to kill Daemon over and over  _and over_  for the rest of the ring's life, is not something he wants to deal with.

He lets out a sigh, that devolves into a groan when he notices the child was able to keep a hold of its little sticks. Perfect, another battle crazed skylark. He summons Mist flames -the kind powerful enough to become physical, not the watered-down illusions- and shoots upwards to at least find the child before it gets too close to the ground.

He does end up finding the boy, around ten kilometres up and free falling quite happily. He flies closer, ready to catch the child, and starts using his Mist flames to slow the boy by increments so the catch is soft.

The boy promptly curls into a ball and forms a vicious spiral, cutting through the gentle suggestions of Mist flames and hurtling directly towards Daemon. The Mist barely manages to get out of the way before the boy unfurls with a snap, feet first, right where Daemon's face was. For some reason he expects the boy to have spikes along his spine.

Daemon huffs in annoyance. He's supposed to be killing a few Shimon right now, not playing with a tiny Alaude. He moves in again, now falling alongside the boy, but angles himself away from the tonfa swipes.

"I'm trying to help you," Daemon snaps, but that's a lie. He's trying to help himself so he doesn't die from an angry blond police officer.

The boy scowls fiercely. "Don't patronise me, herbivore."

Daemon blinks and then smirks. "Big words for such a little thing. Do your parents know about your habit of attacking perfectly innocent citizens?"

"You're not a citizen, you have the purple fire."

"Indigo," Daemon corrects automatically. "What's your famiglia? I thought Alaude gave it up right before he passed on."

The boy blinks in confusion.

"Which mafia family do you belong to?" Daemon tries to explain what he means. "How do you know about Dying Will flames or who taught you?"

The boy rolls his eyes. "It's called Incendiary Defence."

"I think I would know more about it than you," Daemon sneers.

Tiny Alaude looks at him like he's mentally deficient; all pity and gentle kindness.

What a brat.

Daemon gives up doing this the easy way and simply knocks the kid out with an illusion then slows the child to a stop before they hit the ground. He lands lightly, the child slung over a shoulder, and looks for a cranny to stuff the boy inside because he still needs to kill the damn Shimon.

He turns around and freezes when he sees Alaude, the real one, glowing with a faint violet out line and very much translucent.

"What are you doing?" Alaude deadpans.

"Why are you here?" Daemon asks instead. The ninth Vongola Cloud Guardian must be around.

"There was a burst of Mist flames from this vicinity," Alaude states, glaring at Daemon accusingly. "It might have risked the notice of civilians since it was in the sky. The ninth Vongola Cloud was in the area and was told to investigate."

Daemon hums. "Well it was nice seeing you, but I really have to go kill some people." He turns to go but Alaude calls him back.

"Spade," the Could warns, staring down at the unconscious child over Daemon's shoulder, seeing his face for the first time. "Is that mine?"

"Actually," Daemon begins, backing away slowly. "I thought it was more Asari's features, but now that you've said it, the boy does look quite like you. What a coincidence."

"What have you done to him?" Alaude demands with a sharp glare.

"It attacked me first," the Mist huffs in annoyance at the tone. "I am hurt at your insinuation that I would harm a child." He pauses and then adds, "Unprovoked."

"Get my child back to his home," Alaude orders.

"Excuse me?" Daemon laughs sardonically. "Are you expecting me to actually follow that command or has death lost you a few too many brain cells?"

"So you don't want to know how to get a body?" Alaude hums.

Daemon narrows his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"I think you might be forgetting that I collect information," the platinum blonde reminds the melon head. "Being dead doesn't stop me expanding my network, and really you're looking a bit stretched thin around the edges. Can you afford to walk away?"

Daemon deliberates and eventually nods slowly. "I'm guessing you'll give me the information after I return the boy?"

"You're quick on the update, aren't you?" Alaude mocks.

Daemon grits his teeth and adjusts his grip on the kid, tucking him under an arm. "You know, when you died, I made sure you were buried in a dress."

Alaude blinks. "What."

Daemon calmly turns and starts walking.

"What did you just say, criminal?" Alaude snaps. " _I'll arrest you!_ "

"Oh, I'm so scared of a flame construct," Daemon drawls sarcastically. "Don't worry, it was a beautiful lacy number. It made your legs look stunning."

Alaude disappears and the Cloud ninth is charging around a corner not a second later, ring bursting with colour. Daemon mutters a curse and starts running as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – revenge
> 
> Kyouya throws open Mukuro's door and strides in without hesitation. He snatches the Mist ring from Mukuro's hand, pulls off his own, and drops them into a small jewellery box.
> 
> Daemon feels a tug on his chest and is forcibly torn away from the ice-cream parlour in Milan. He blinks when he reappears at the top of a skyscraper, the building floating in nothing but blue sky.
> 
> "I've been waiting, criminal," Alaude murmurs, spiked handcuff spinning lazily around a finger.
> 
> "I swear on my non-existent life, I was lying about the dress," Daemon blurts out.


	15. Chapter 15

Daemon manages to lose the ninth Cloud Guardian by cloaking himself and sending out several other Mist constructs of men who look only vaguely like him.

"I didn't know adults could have an Incendiary Defence," Kyouya says conversationally, his words partly muffled in the man's back.

Daemon tenses and then immediately drops the brat from his shoulder onto the floor of the alleyway he's currently waiting in. The boy lands neatly on his feet and stares up at Daemon with narrowed eyes, calm like he's just taking a stroll through the park instead of facing up against a literal zombie.

"How long were you awake?" Daemon demands.

"When did I go to sleep?" Kyouya corrects and then swiftly continues. "Congratulations, Kcl, you've proven yourself worthy to be one of my pets. I'm going to take you home now. It would be easier if you didn't struggle."

Daemon takes a calming breath. "I don't know what your parents have been feeding you-"

"I have too many reds," Kyouya interrupts, probably not even realising he's cutting over the man. The little boy starts toddling off, out of the alleyway and down the road without a care, expecting Daemon to follow without protest. "How do I change a few of them to purple?"

Daemon stalks after the child only because Alaude promised him a body. "What do you mean by 'change'?"

"I have a high concentration of reds," Kyouya reiterates. "But only one -now two- purples."

"Indigo," Daemon corrects again. "You have to specify indigo, because there's a violet as well."

"What does the violet do?" Kyouya demands.

Daemon is a little bit incredulous, because not only has this supposed civilian child discovered Incendiary – Dying Will flames, but he's also realised the additional abilities that each one has. Before Daemon realises, he's been sucked into an argument on flame properties.

He decides (somewhere between the discussion on which ones are more useful in torture, compared to which ones are more suited to being nightlights) that he's going to stay around the child solely because it'll be funny when Kyouya takes over the world.

"Stay here," Kyouya orders after he guides Daemon into a hotel lobby. "I need to check something."

Daemon immediately dismisses the order out of hand and follows the child up to the reception desk. Kyouya is too small to see over it so Daemon lifts the boy and drops him onto the bench.

"Herbivore," Kyouya greets the receptionist. "Is there a message for me?"

The lady blinks and then picks up a post-it note stuck to her computer, passing it over. Kyouya reads through it and huffs before balling the paper up and stuffing it into his pocket.

"Let's go," Kyouya says and cambers onto Daemon's shoulders like the man is a faithful steed, grabbing two handfuls of the hair puff so he doesn't fall off.

Daemon makes a deal with himself: if he passes a body of water deep enough, he gets to drown the skylark.

* * *

Daemon comes to an abrupt stop as children stream out of the door to Kyouya's address and pour into a mass around Daemon's legs, none of them reaching higher than his abdomen. They cling to his legs and then stop, staring up at him without blinking.

Daemon is not okay right now. He has no idea what's happening but if these God-forsaken, demon possessed children don't get away from him then he's going to kill them all.

One with a short pompadour like a unicorn horn raises his arms at Daemon and stays like that, as if trying to pull the soul from the man's chest. Daemon has not killed nearly enough people to deserve this.

Kyouya leans forward with arms braced on the man's head, and Daemon remember that yes; he has a child on his shoulders. So he promptly grabs the boy by the waist and pulls the child off, passing Kyouya down to the unicorn boy. Screw this freak show, Daemon will gladly sacrifice tiny Alaude to the kiddie cult.

The mass of children swallows Kyouya and then moves as one back into the house. Daemon is left standing there, blinking at the door. He then turns on a heel and leaves, because there's no way he's going into that house. At least not while there's an army of (probably bloodsucking) toddlers inside it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – first impressions
> 
> "Why do you have a flamethrower?" Asari asks.
> 
> Lampo frowns down at the weapon in his hands. "The exorcism didn't work."
> 
> Asari pats the other man on the back comfortingly. "Finally met the tenth generation, huh?"


	16. Chapter 16

Mukuro returns the next day, a plan in mind for how he's going to hide the other people he'll pick up during the infiltration. The Estraneo will die, but on top of that he'll take away their prized experiments. That way, no one else can step in and continue the torture.

Mukuro isn't oblivious, of course Estraneo isn't the only famiglia in human experimentation, but Mukuro has a personal hatred for them. He'll get to the others later.

For now, he needs to figure out all of the hidden bases necessary for a contingency plan because the Estraneo has allies and, worse-case scenario, they come after Mukuro and he has to keep running from them.

It would be… nice if Mukuro could find somewhere genuinely safe. Chrome is a brief escape, but as soon as his actual body is disturbed then he's wrenched away from her and stuck once again in hell.

Mukuro decides, halfway to Chrome's room, that when all is said and done, he'll look for a home. Somewhere he can go and no one will hurt him.

Kyouya pokes his head into the hallway and locks onto Mukuro. "Welcome home," the little boy says automatically in greeting before ducking away again.

Mukuro blinks, staring at the empty space where Kyouya used to be. "Okay," he murmurs quietly.

Chrome smiles fondly when Mukuro retreats into her, the boy stunned and partly frightened at the sudden rush of warmth in his chest. She walks into the living room and greets Kyouya back. "We're home."

* * *

Kyouya's adult is wary of the army Kyouya has accumulated, which is a perfectly logical reaction, but it also means that it takes several days until the adult is willing to even enter the house.

They settle on a compromise where there should only be enough children that Daemon can't be overwhelmed by 'demonic powers' if they attack. Kyouya lets the man have the delusion that he'd be able to escape without Kyouya's permission.

The first group Daemon is introduced to consists of Kyouya's nightlights; his first yellow, orange and purple. His green is off in school because the parents insist that learning how to spell is important.

* * *

Daemon looks up from the living room couch and sees the four children toddle into the room. He's not even surprised that the descendants have found each other –it only seems natural- but he does take a moment to stare at the little girl, slightly horrified. He then remembers that he has not actually fathered a child. He sighs in relief.

Daemon looks over the children who peer back in curiosity. Well, they clearly don't have rings so the first thing for him to do is to find them some conductors, so they can actually conjure flames, and then he can assess their power -

"This one is orange," Kyouya introduces and gestures at Tsuna.

The brunet obligingly lights up.

" _How?"_ Daemon deadpans in annoyance. "No, wait, I mean why? Why do you do this to me? Do you even know – there are  _rules_ , tiny Alaude. Logical rules."

Kyouya just blinks at him. "Yes. My rules."

* * *

Kyouya doesn't mind the purple adult, even though the man keeps looking at the children in distress every so often. Mostly when they show him that Tsuna can fly and Tetsuya can power a lightbulb.

Daemon insists that flames can't reach past the skin unless they have a conductor -a ring of some sort- to control it. He says that Tsuna shouldn't be able to summon it to his hands, nor shape it into a vague bunny shape just to entertain Kyouya.

The purple throws his hands up in incredulous exasperation and claims that flames shouldn't even manifest visibly unless their power is off the charts strong. So really, it's near to impossible that every person Kyouya has found -especially civilian kids- have been able to not only trigger the summoning but also harness the flames at will.

To be fair, most of the children can only manage a dim glow on their skin. It's still incredible because most people who have class C or lower can't manifest their fire well or at all most of the time.

Daemon presumes that it's the power of ignorance.

After all, why would you give up when you are completely certain that what you're trying to achieve is reachable, if only you'll put enough effort into it. If you don't know there's a barrier in front of you, then of course you won't stop.

The mafia is built on that concept of pushing limits. Dying Will means you put everything into one action, one thought, and you don't stop until you have what you want – until you've thrown yourself at that barrier over and over again.

And you just hope and pray that it breaks before you do.

Daemon is looking forward to how these children will end up. Little terrors shifting to fully formed monsters, civilians worse than anything home grown by the mafia.

So Daemon steals a few different ring types and forges copies to gift to the children. He then takes it upon himself to teach them manipulation of the base flame, plus the special facets like disintegration and electricity.

He finds himself feeling… proud when the little kids charge a yakuza base a couple months later and send the adults running, most of the men and women on fire, and all of them screaming in terror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – home
> 
> Tsuna twitches under Mukuro's intent stare and sighs, looking up from his paperwork. "What do you want?"
> 
> "Say it," Mukuro demands.
> 
> "I-" Tsuna sighs again, heavier this time. "I don't know what you want from me."
> 
> "I just got in," Mukuro explains. "Greet me."
> 
> Tsuna stares. "Uh, welcome home?"
> 
> Mukuro lights up in delight and smiles. "I'm home." He then disperses into thin air now that he has what he came for.
> 
> Tsuna runs a hand down his face. One of these days, he's going to build up the courage to ask for an explanation.


	17. Chapter 17

It's around early afternoon when Kyouya wakes to someone crying loudly outside the window. He huffs and rolls over in Tsuna's bed, having walked over in the morning and then passed out again after eating breakfast from Nana.

He frowns when Tsuna's crying doesn't stop and staggers to his feet, eventually managing to sleepily wobble over to the window. He stands on his toes and pokes his head out to find Tsuna in the small front yard, the other boy sitting on the grass, covered in orange flames and sobbing as a tiny chihuahua barks at him in little squeaks.

Kyouya sighs heavily.

He's about to head back to sleep when two strangers emerge from the front door below, one a wrinkly human and one a blond, already gaping at the fire around Tsuna that slowly flickers and dies away.

Kyouya had seen them briefly when he walked in this morning but payed them no mind. The blond looks strong, but his personality is a bit air-headed. The wrinkled human is not a threat because Kyouya is not allowed to hit him, and therefore the man becomes a non-entity in Kyouya's mind.

The dog darts away when the adults near and the blond gently stands Tsuna up again, trying to calm him down by laughing it off and showing that it's not a big deal. Tsuna does not respond well to being laughed at and cries even louder. The old one steps forward and the blond looks confused, then worried, but backs away from Tsuna.

The frail but steady old man lights an orange fire on his finger. Kyouya leans further out of the window in delight at finding yet another orange, but then the man reaches for Tsuna's forehead. Tsuna's crying dies down, and instead of the hysterical fright at being attacked by a scrap of a puppy, true fear of the unknown starts to cloud his eyes.

Kyouya frowns down at his orange and the two men, swiftly climbing onto the sill before launching himself from the window.

Iemitsu sees a small dark blur spiralling viciously through the air straight towards him and he lurches forward, shoving the Vongola Don out of the way and holding out his pickaxe like a shield to block the hit.

Kyouya unfurls with a snap at the last moment but the weapon gets in the way. Kyouya's left foot lands on the pickaxe handle and he crouches down, folding that leg until he was kneeling on the blond's collar bone. He grabs the short hair with both hands and swings his right leg around until he's sitting on the man's shoulders.

Kyouya throws himself backwards and the momentum he's built up all the way from his jump now takes hold, forcing Iemitsu into a backflip. The man throws the pickaxe away, unwilling to take the chance that the little boy won't accidentally hurt himself, but that time costs him.

Iemitsu's face smashes into the grass of the front yard and the rest of his body follows soon after. Kyouya frowns down at the fallen herbivore, still straddling the back of the man's neck and gripping the short hair.

Kyouya gets to his feet and strides towards his pet. He throws a stunned Tsuna over his shoulder and makes for his own home. He stops by the old one, who's staring down at Kyouya with wide eyes.

"Don't touch my pets, herbivore," Kyouya warns. "I won't hold back, even if you are wrinkly." He then strides away.

* * *

About ten minutes later, the two men find themselves seated in the living room, Iemitsu still trying to scrub dirt off his cheeks.

Timoteo frowns. "I need to go back to Italy, Iemitsu," he admits. "We both do. But I'll send someone to look after the situation."

Iemitsu nods slowly, still concerned about his son awakening his flames too early, not to mention the insane child who apparently has the strength of an adult hippopotamus.

The Don smiles. "It'll be alright. I know how worried fathers can get -I have four kids of my own after all- but this only looks bigger than it really is."

It's honestly a good thing this came up because Xanxus does need something to distract him – he's been getting restless lately.

* * *

"What?" Xanxus deadpans.

"Just take it as a holiday," Timoteo offers up. "You can even take your Varia with you. All you have to do is watch a child, make a few observations, and come back home. Two days, maximum."

"What."

The Ninth sighs. "It's kind of difficult to have a conversation if you only say one word."

"What the fuck."

* * *

Kyouya has  _all of the nightlights_. They're practically throwing themselves at him. He gapes up at the teenagers who loom over Kyouya and a terrified Tsuna, a visible rainbow of killing intent surrounding the teenagers.

"Trash," Xanxus greets in the nicest tone he can, which is still about two steps above murderous.

"Herbivores," Kyouya greets back, eyes wide and a gleeful smile on his face. "Would you like to see my fighting pit?"

Squalo frowns and looks to the others. "Okay, so apparently I'm not very good with Japanese."

"No, you're fine, he did actually say the words 'fighting pit'," Lussuria answers in Italian. "Could be like a… cultural thing?"

"It's a Hibari thing," Mammon deadpans and then shrugs at their curious looks. "You don't want to know what happened."

"Kind of do," Belphegor admits with Levi nodding along in the background.

Kyouya doesn't bother trying to decipher the foreign language, just walks forward. Tsuna whimpers in fright but clings and gets dragged along for the ride. Kyouya grabs Xanxus' hand and starts pulling him away from Tsuna's front door and over to Kyouya's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – fighting pit
> 
> Reborn lets out an impressed whistle, peering down. "This brings back memories, huh Colonnello?" Reborn throws a glance over his shoulder when there's no reply but the soldier is gone. The hitman looks around the room. "Nello?"
> 
> A blond head peeks around the doorway. "I think I'll stay over here." Colonnello says nervously. "You know, in case of assassins sneaking up on us."
> 
> "Assassins," Reborn echoes at a deadpan.
> 
> "I'm just trying to keep you safe, baby Born," Colonnello says earnestly.


	18. Chapter 18

Daemon is at the border of Namimori when he hears a whisper about the Varia entering the town. He sighs heavily and turns back to go keep tiny Giotto safe.

Daemon has an extensive network, a little hobby of his, so he knows that the Shimon haven't moved. He did get a little side-tracked by the tiny Vongola but he knows what he wants and he won't stop until he's drenched in Shimon's blood.

That might have to wait just a little more as he keeps watch over the kiddie cult. He just needs to make sure the Varia aren't a bad influence on them (or vice versa) and then he can duck out quickly, finish off the Shimon, and come back to tuck them in for bed time.

And if the Varia are here to kill a potential heir, a potential threat?

Well Daemon would  _love_  to see them try and get past all the hell hounds tiny Alaude has amassed. Those things bite.

* * *

"Would you like a drink?" Kyouya offers because that is what adults do.

"Do you have wine?" Xanxus asks.

"I have apple juice."

"Then no."

Kyouya shrugs. "I can't reach it anyway. It's too high in the fridge and I'm not allowed to climb the shelves."

The teenage Incendiary Defences just take a moment to stare. Kyouya almost starts smiling again. He can see their fire -actual fire, like orange- flicker just under their skin, casting odd colours on the walls and furniture of Kyouya's home if they get close enough.

The adult purple doesn't shine like that, but the adult purple also tends to become transparent and lose tangibility, so Kyouya counts him as an outlier.

Now these herbivores are proper nightlights, burning with inner hell fire.

Levi grimaces. " _He's looking at me weirdly,_ " he mutters, still in Italian.

" _Suck it up,_ " Xanxus snaps. " _It's a kid, what's he going to do?_ "

" _Did you not see the see same fighting pit that I did?_ " Squalo asks. " _There was blood everywhere. It's like he's your spirit animal or something_."

" _It was berry juice_ ," Belphegor says. " _Very raspberry._ "

Lussuria frowns. " _Sweetie, did you lick the floor in there?_ "

Squalo throws his hands up. " _Then why so much juice everywhere? This just brings up more questions! And also, Bel, stop licking things_."

Mammon floats away from the Varia and down to the bigger Fon clone, with the brunet kid still hiding behind the boy. The brunet seems to be trying very hard to become invisible yet when anyone gets too close, he'll actually step in front of bigger Fon. Children are strange.

"Hey, kid," Mammon mutters and pulls out a voice recorder. "Say the sentence 'Mist flames are better than Storm flames'."

Kyouya blinks. Mist? The purple light? Oh, the little human must be confused. He reaches out and pats the little one on the hood of its cloak. "It's called Kcl."

It occurs to Mammon that perhaps they're too used to fully functioning adults inside baby containers, so talking to an actual child is a lot more complicated than they first predicted.

Mammon frowns. "There is apparently a communication barrier here…" They tuck away the recorder, deeming it a lost cause. The kid's voice is slightly different as well, so it wouldn't exactly be Fon admitting to it.

Kyouya completely ignores their words. "Do you want to see my glitter collection?"

"Is it the flammable kind? Because Reborn went through a glitter phase and I don't really want to deal with tha-"

"Glitter can be _flammable?!_ "

Daemon, one foot through the door, hears the cry of glee and shudders.

* * *

Iemitsu frowns sceptically at the report and Timoteo catches it. The Ninth turns back to Xanxus, the teen sitting in front of the office desk with his Varia standing around him.

"Are you sure?" Timoteo insists. "Nothing at all needs a second glance? The other child came back clean as well?"

"Nothing worrying," Xanxus scoffs dismissively, kicking up his feet onto the Ninth's desk. One boot is a little singed. "Complete waste of time to go there."

Xanxus' eyes slide across to his Guardians, taking in the small burns and Levi's loss of hair, and then land back on the Vongola Don.

"Those kids are absolutely harmless," Xanxus drawls.

* * *

Daemon breathes a sigh of relief once the Varia are finally gone. Kyouya moped a little bit by chasing everyone out of the police building and nesting there for a few hours, but he seems to be feeling better now.

Which is more than what can be said for the town as a whole. The populace of Namimori is still wary after those glitter Molotov cocktails, and it'll take at least a year to rebuild the damaged infrastructure, with even more time needed to heal the mental trauma, but it's over now. Hopefully.

At least the Varia leaving meant Kyouya was distracted from his spree of domestic terrorism. Daemon is pretty sure Kyouya has moved on from that now anyway since the kid has a pretty short attention span if it doesn't involve nightlights.

As an extra precaution, Daemon points the boy towards a tiny Asari that Daemon found a few days ago. If it also means that Kyouya will be too occupied to notice Daemon's absence while he hunts down the Shimon, well that's just excellent planning on his part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – sixth sense
> 
> Reborn's head snaps up abruptly and Verde trails off, raising an eyebrow at the hitman.
> 
> Reborn looks into the distance with narrowed eyes. "I feel like I'm missing out on chaos."
> 
> Verde gives him a flat look. "Just drink your espresso."
> 
> Reborn distractedly drags the baby bottle towards him and latches back onto the tip.
> 
> Verde's phone starts ringing and he automatically picks up when he sees Mammon's number. "Yes? What? No, Fon and Reborn do not have a child together. Yes, I'm very sure. Yes, I would know. Yes, I'm aware of how manly Fon is but that doesn't mean he can get another man pregnant. What's this ab-" Verde blinks and pulls the phone away from his ear to stare at it, incredulous. "They hung up on me."
> 
> Reborn smirks. "Fon is actually very manly so we shouldn't discount the possibility of a child."
> 
> "Baby Born?"
> 
> "Yes, De?"
> 
> "Drink your espresso."


	19. Chapter 19

Kyouya deigns to take the purple man's suggestion and tracks down a cheery boy with a passion for baseball.

Kyouya finds the child at a local park but the other is surrounded by a herd so Kyouya hangs back and waits. He doesn't want to cause a stampede, after all. Kyouya occupies his time with collecting pretty rocks because pets should get treats and he hasn't given Kcl anything in a while.

When the sky shifts to orange and pink, the herd of children dissipates and Kyouya begins his usual routine. He stalks the other boy across the park but pauses when his prey says something interesting.

"Yep," the boy chirps cheerfully to another child. "I'll have time tomorrow, but only in the afternoon. I'm helping dad with the shop in the morning."

It only now occurs to Kyouya that maybe the Incendiary Defence is genetic. If Kyouya follows the boy home, then will he get two adults as well? Can… can he breed his pets to get new colour combinations?

Kyouya resolves to look up how babies are made.

Kyouya merges with a family leaving the park and splits off again when he's out of the other's line of sight. He quickly darts across the road and crouches behind a parked car until the boy passes by, whistling happily.

The boy seems to take notice of something on the way home, occasionally pausing and looking behind him. Kyouya retreats further back and the boy relaxes again. This is wonderful; the boy is already trained.

It's late enough that the sushi restaurant that serves as the boy's den is closed, which is good for Kyouya since he can observe how the boy takes a spare key from inside the closed/open sign hanging on the front door and then replaces it after unlocking the restaurant.

Kyouya waits another five minutes after the child disappears inside before ghosting up to the hiding place and retrieving the key. The door is strangely still unlocked but Kyouya shrugs it off and pushes it open.

He steps into the restaurant, only to find the child he was tracking being held by a buff man clutching a gun.

Two other males and one female are standing around, pointing guns threateningly at two adults who bare a strong resemblance to the child, both of whom are currently bleeding out on the ground with only the father still (barely) conscious.

They're all staring at Kyouya in a mix of confusion, worry and anger. Frankly, this is much more fun than Kyouya was expecting.

He sprints forward, his tonfas slotting into his hands. He jumps and bounces off a wall, bringing a tonfa down on the buff man holding the child.

It breaks Kyouya's wooden tonfa, but the adult goes down hard, and the other child takes the chance to run to his father as the adults focus on Kyouya. In his periphery he sees the child scramble for a dropped knife on the floor near the father's prone form but there's no need. Kyouya is dealing with it.

He drops to his knees in a power slide under a table and cracks the female's knee, then leaps back to his feet as he brings the broken tonfa, just the handle and bit of the main cylinder, onto her head when she drops to the floor.

Two of them left.

He discards the ruined tonfa and then throws his remaining weapon to get the third adult, the wood shattering to splinters as it snaps at least three ribs. The man is thrown to the ground, head smacking against the flooring hard enough to take him out.

It's the last man who finally realises that maybe the little child is actually a serious threat.

The bullet catches Kyouya in the side, ripping straight through, and he falls backwards onto the floor - sitting there for a moment in confusion. The other child screams, as if that would help at all, and that's when the pain hits.

It… it hurts. It really,  _really_  hurts but Kyouya is fine, just perfectly fine because he is a - a  _carnivore_  and it's only a small piece of metal and he is  _better than this_.

A sob rips from his chest, bursting from his mouth without permission. He clamps his hands over his mouth but he's already crying, the world blurring from tears as his shoulders shake and it just makes everything worse because the movement hurts his wound more.

The other child's father struggles to push himself up but he's lost far too much blood already and collapses on shaking arms. Instead, he grits his teeth at his own impotency, then tugs his son closer so the boy wouldn't have to see this.

The remaining adult walks forward, gun held steadily at Kyouya's head.

That man is cheating because he has a gun and Kyouya is a close range fighter - and  _everything hurts_. He tries to control himself, but he can't stop crying now that he's started. He's just acting like a stupid  _herbivore_ , it's fine, nothing is wrong with him, he only has a flesh wound.

The adult says something, an angry scowl on his face, but Kyouya feels like he's underwater where the sound is muffled and distorted.

His clothes are soaked around the wound, the material heavy and sticking to his skin, glinting dark red under the shop's ceiling lights. He tries to remember what pocket he put some band-aids in. If he can just put on at least one then everything will be okay, he'll be fine, and everything will  _stop hurting_.

The man barks something but seems to give up on getting an answer, finger squeezing down on the trigger.

Kyouya tries to focus, to gather the last of his strength, to push himself just that little bit further, but his vision is already blurring. He falls until he's splayed out on his back, staring up at the ceiling, as his eyes slide closed and his body shuts down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: I wasn't joking around when writing this chapter (it's legit for plot), but yes, I was fucking with you when I changed this fic to complete. 
> 
> P.S. You guys were a lot more chill than the readers over at FFN. I guess it's because they've been reading longer so they're more attached XD.
> 
> ...
> 
> Omake – sixth sense 2
> 
> "We have a son," Reborn declares when he opens the door.
> 
> Fon and Skull blink at him, and from inside the apartment they can hear Verde sigh and Mammon make a victorious noise.
> 
> "I think I would remember that," Skull argues.
> 
> "Not you, lackey," Reborn scoffs.
> 
> "I think I would remember that," Fon echoes because it's a very good point.
> 
> Reborn just continues anyway. "He has my killing intent and penchant for chaos with your… well, your everything else."
> 
> Fon hums. "Ah, now I know who you're talking about." Fon hasn't visited Kyouya in a while, perhaps he should drop by soon.
> 
> "Ha!" Mammon crows. "They do have a baby! Fon admits it!"
> 
> "They are babies!" Verde snaps back. "When would this supposed birth have taken place? If the child is, what - seven, then they'd both still be physical babies back then."
> 
> "Luce gave birth to Aria when she was still a baby," Skull points out. He gets a pat on the head from one of Mammon's illusionary hands.
> 
> Verde sighs. "I meant the actual act of impregna- no, never mind. Okay, then why don't we remember one of them being pregnant for nine months?"
> 
> "I'm a master of disguise," says the cactus with a fedora, sitting innocently in a little pot next to Fon.
> 
> Verde reaches for his phone because he needs Lal and her sanity.


	20. Chapter 20

"Enma! Dinner time!"

Enma slowly looks up at his mum's voice. He blinks rapidly like he's coming out of a trance. He stands haltingly and practices walking around the bedroom shared with his little sister. When the stride is smooth he stops.

Enma's left eye flares indigo and he smirks darkly.

Daemon has Kyouya to thank for this bit of inspired psychological torture; after all, what's better than slaughtering an entire family? Slaughtering the entire family with the son's own hands, of course! People will believe it too, because children are terrifying.

Daemon rolls Enma's shoulders to loosen up and then toddles out of the room with the same lack of grace he's seen Tsuna wield. He finds the family bustling around the kitchen. The little sister is already sitting in her high chair while the mother is setting the table and the father is pouring the last of the stir-fry out of a pan and into a bowl.

Daemon wonders if he should wait until the end of the meal or perhaps mid-way through. He doesn't want to do it now, that would be rushing things, and he first wants to display signs of 'strange' behaviour. It's always better if they know something is wrong because it heightens the tension perfectly.

'Daemon?'

Daemon is too good to be thrown off by the abrupt call. Instead, he smoothly walks up to the table and clambers up the adult sized chair in his currently child sized body.

'What is it, Chrome?' Daemon responds. 'If Ryohei wants another juice box then tell him no. It makes him even more hyper active, that's why I put it on the top shelf.'

'It's not that,' Chrome hedges. 'Tsuna is… feeling bad?'

Daemon immediately tries to remember if Tsuna showed any signs of becoming sick when Daemon left, but he still tells himself he doesn't care.

'Tsuna says that the bad feeling tells him Kyouya is going to get hurt.'

Enma slides off his chair and walks away without a word.

"Enma?" Makoto calls after his son.

When Enma doesn't respond, Makoto shares a confused look with his wife. He stands up to find Enma and asks what's wrong, but after half an hour without a single sign of the boy, they call the police.

* * *

Daemon arrives in time to see tiny Asari tackle a full-grown man through the restaurant's wall and into the street. The boy's body is encased in a bright blue glow and his snarl is ferocious.

"So cute," Daemon murmurs, perhaps a bit tilted from spending so much time with Kyouya and his kiddie cult.

Daemon uses Enma's Earth flames to fly over and drop onto the road beside the very one-sided fight. Unfortunately for Daemon, he is not possessing someone with Mist the way Mukuro is with Chrome, so Daemon can't hop back into his body with a snap of his fingers.

It takes a whole lot of concentration and power to switch bodies not aligned with Mist flames, so that has to be put on the back burner until he knows where Kyouya is.

Daemon flips the gravity around the man's head to ten times so the skull collides with the concrete and neatly knocks the man out. Daemon leaves Asari's kid though because the boy looks like he's having fun punching the man and it would be rude to drag him away.

Daemon toddles over in this small body and enters the restaurant through the hole tiny Asari made. It was hardly a load bearing wall, only plaster and some insulation, but it's still rather impressive. That boy can really pack a punch.

All the humour in Daemon drains away when he sees Kyouya's still form.

* * *

Kyouya wakes up to an off white ceiling and an uncomfortably hard bed. He raises his head to look around and realises several things in quick succession. He needs to get some new tonfas, he's in the hospital, he intensely dislikes herbivores, and there is also a baby sitting the chair next to Kyouya's bed who looks a lot like him.

In that order.

"Kyouya, do you feel alright?" the baby asks. "Is there anything I can get you?"

Kyouya pushes the blanket away and pulls the neck of the hospital gown to look at his torso, but he can't find any sort of wound. He thought injuries needed time to heal, like when he gets bruises from fighting. Maybe going to a hospital gets rid of that waiting time. Kyouya reminds himself to visit more.

"Who are you?" Kyouya demands. "And why are you here?

The baby blinks. "Oh, well you were rather young back then, I suppose you wouldn't remember. My name is Fon, I'm a relative of yours. I've been asked to take care of you."

"What is our relation?" Kyouya interrogates. "What do you mean 'take care of'? I am perfectly fine by myself."

"Distant," Fon says bluntly. "And no, you are not fine. You got shot."

"So this is because I wasn't strong enough?" Kyouya snaps. "I was sent a baby as a sitter because of a scratch?"

"It's because you're seven and you shouldn't have to be strong in the first place," Fon says patiently. "Besides, it was hardly a scratch. The bullet caught your transverse colon, jejunum and kidney, not to mention the muscles affected and the blood loss."

"It's completely healed," Kyouya deadpans. "You're over exaggerating."

Fon bites his tongue, but certainly not because the mafia gets twitchy when civilians know about flames. It's really for the best if Kyouya doesn't discover anything. "The doctors here are very good," is all he comments.

"You're not living with me," Kyouya grumbles, settling back into the hospital bed.

"We'll speak about the arrangements later, when you're out of hospital," Fon says with a serene smile.

Kyouya narrows his eyes. "You are not living with me."

Fon seems to consider not replying but eventually speaks up. "You will be staying with me for the next few weeks… in Italy. Just until everything has calmed down here." Or until Fon tracks down who did this to Kyouya and has a stern  _talk_  about who is and isn't allowed inside Namimori.

"And what can an infant do that I can't manage?" Kyouya scoffs. "Namimori is not a place of any violence _except my own_. This is a one-time incident."

"We'll speak later," Fon repeats, hopping off his chair. "I'll sign you out of hospital now. Please change into the clothes I brought, then we'll stop off at your house to pick up some of your things."

Kyouya watches the infant toddle out of the room and looks to the bag Fon brought, resting at the end of the bed. He scowls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – babysitter
> 
> Hayato frowns at the mess of weapons on the training room floor but starts to clean it up anyway. "Yeah, fine. I guess I'm just the babysitter now."
> 
> "You're not a baby," Kyouya declares, cleaning his tonfas a few meters away.
> 
> "That's not what that word means," Hayato begins, though he should know better than to argue at this point.
> 
> "Either you're a baby who's a sitter, or you sit on babies," Kyouya explains. "Pick one."
> 
> "No."
> 
> "Pick. One."
> 
> "Kyouya, stop, that is not how an argument works. Are you even trying to argue anyth-?"
> 
> "Pickone."
> 
> "Okay, you know what? That's not how anything works, Kyouya. Nothing. Nothing works like that. Except maybe a dictatorship."
> 
> "P i c k. O n e."


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're still going through a bit of rushed story development, so it's not as smooth or as humorous as I would have liked...

Fon returns to the room after signing Kyouya out of hospital and is not at all surprised to find it empty. Thankfully, Fon has planned for this.

He calls the local police because it's well known that they have a whole department dedicated to keeping track of Kyouya.

* * *

Kyouya escapes back to the street but he can't go home since the baby will be looking for him there. (He's currently going off the theory that if he hides for long enough then the infant will get tired and leave.) Kyouya knows exactly where he should go.

Namimori middle is approximately a ten minute walk from the primary division. Their security is pathetic and Kyouya resolves to have that changed when he has the time. The building is also larger than what Kyouya is used to in a school but it's not difficult to navigate.

He gets a few stares from the herbivores wandering around because he looks too young to be going to middle school. Then again, the teachers in Kyouya's primary look far too old to be in a school full of children but no one thinks that's strange.

Kyouya has long ago decided not to question such things. Age is nothing but a matter of preference apparently.

After wandering the halls for a while Kyouya narrows in on a room isolated off to one corner. The door is half open and the afternoon sun lures him in. He slips inside just as the bell rings to recall the students.

He paces the room, observing the school yard through the windows from his high vantage point, enjoying how the sunlight floods the room at the perfect angle to provide warmth but not blind him. He clambers onto the couch and bounces - to test the quality of the furniture of course.

He also searches through the wooden desk, finding mostly rubbish and dust in its drawers. In fact, most of the room is cluttered with storage shelves full of random school supplies. It has things such as old and worn text books, along with several scattered pens without caps, and miscellaneous equipment that seems to be mostly cables.

Kyouya surveys the room as a whole. It could use some work, but it's both comfortable and spacious. It would make a good base of operations for his growing army.

He rolls up his sleeves, ready to clean this place up. Then he realises he doesn't know how to clean so he just falls asleep on the couch instead.

Kyouya then wakes up on an aeroplane with no recollection of how he got to this point. He scowls fiercely at the baby sitting beside him, but he's not going to fight. Especially not with another infant in the row behind him, since who knows how strong the second baby will be? They might destroy the plane entirely.

Despite refraining from a fight, Kyouya does remind himself to get some new tonfas anyway, since his last pair broke. Maybe he'll use metal instead of wood this time.

* * *

They step out of the airport into Italy and Fon looks away for  _barely a moment_.

Fon sighs in exasperation, half heartedly peering around people's knees to try and find Kyouya even though the boy is probably long gone from here. That child needs a leash or something.

* * *

Daemon, once more in his own body, materialises next to the tiny Skylark on a cobblestoned street in the heart of Italy. He saw the sleeping boy off at the airport in Japan using Enma's form, then switched out, leaving tiny Giotto to watch the redhead while Daemon made his way to Italy.

Kyouya glances up at Daemon then continues toddling on.

"Do you know where you're going?" Daemon asks, secretly wondering if he should address the whole 'you got shot' incident.

Kyouya's flames didn't manifest at all, which means the boy didn't feel like he was close to dying. Kyouya must have been certain that he would survive the shot, and that confidence in his strength and resilience hasn't waned at all since he woke up in hospital. It's probably encouraged by the fact that he doesn't have any injuries remaining thanks to the Storm Arcobaleno's contacts.

"I found a new one that actually explodes," Kyouya answers. "I'm hunting it now."

"Evil never rests, huh?" Daemon huffs in amusement.

Kyouya slants a glare at Daemon but a flash of silver quickly catches his attention. Daemon watches as Kyouya sprints off and then flying tackles a tiny G to the ground. They just need one Lampo now and that's all of them; the entire first generation of Vongola as toddlers.

* * *

The sliver haired boy screams something at Kyouya in a strange language, thrashing and dropping sticks of what looks to be plastic as Kyouya drags him down an empty alleyway and behind several bins. It takes a few thumps against the wall but the other boy eventually starts glowing. It's not an explosion, like what Kyouya saw beforehand, but it's almost as good.

Red blooms on the herbivore's forehead first, followed in quick succession by yellow, blue, purple and green. They all flicker rapidly before the red overtakes the rest and smothers them out, becoming the biggest and brightest colour.

Kyouya is very smug because his newest nightlight has like all of the flames already and therefore his other herbivores are able to switch as well. They're simply more used to one colour, exactly like Kyouya predicted when he first started his experiments, so with a bit of practice they could learn to change colours at will.

"Oh, sweetie," Daemon sighs in fondness, clearly mocking as he saunters up them. "If you want to make friends then you need to use your words."

Kyouya gives Daemon the best deadpan stare the Mist has ever seen.

* * *

Tsuna opens the huge package delivered to his house by Daemon Express Mail™ and Hayato is forever loyal to the boy that got him out of the crate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake – making friends
> 
> Tsuna frowns when he hears a strange shuffling sound slowly getting louder. He looks up from his laptop just in time to see Kyouya walk past the open doorway of Tsuna's office.
> 
> Tsuna stares at the body bag Kyouya is dragging along the floor behind him, thankfully still moving, with muffled sobbing coming from it.
> 
> Tsuna then wisely decides to not involve himself with any of that.


	22. Chapter 22

While the child is being delivered via Daemon Express Mail™, Daemon takes the chance to reassure the kiddie cult that Kyouya is fine.

They crawl all over him and babble questions about if Kyouya is eating properly or if he's cold at night without at least three nightlights to keep him company. They're a bit worried even though they visited him when he was still asleep in the hospital.

Mukuro drags Daemon off to the side after everyone has their questions answered and explains his plan. It's probably the best time for this since a building in Kokuyo has been cleared and Kyouya is already in Italy if backup is needed. They talk for a bit before Daemon nods and disperses into vapour.

Enma and Hayato are awkwardly standing around in the background, wondering when they can go home.

* * *

"Kyouya," Fon says coaxingly. "I'll let you meet a really strong opponent if you stop running off."

Kyouya pauses from where he's got one leg out of the window of the bathroom. He ducked into a restaurant to hide when he saw Fon walking towards him but when Fon caught on and followed Kyouya was forced to duck further into the back.

Kyouya purses his lips. "How strong are we talking about here?"

* * *

"You can call me mother," Reborn tells the child.

Kyouya peers down at the infant and slowly takes the lighter out of his pocket.

"Fon's kid or not, I will break you," Reborn promises calmly. He knows where this is going, Mammon warned everyone.

The lighter flicks to life, but before Kyouya can attempt anything, Fon reaches over and pokes Reborn in the side for being mean to Kyouya.

Reborn responds by spitting out a small fireball of bright yellow at Fon, who narrows his eyes and easily swallows the flame whole, his teeth clicking shut around it.

Kyouya stares, wide eyed as the last flickers of yellow disappear behind the martial artist's lips. He drops the lighter then calmly takes off his backpack and empties the contents onto the ground. His new metal tonfas fall out, followed by a rock, a plastic tube of glitter, a water bottle, and a jacket in case he gets cold.

Kyouya arranges the backpack so it's stable on the floor and grabs the baby around the middle. Reborn shares a look with Fon, not sure what Kyouya is trying to do here, but Fon looks just as confused.

Kyouya very gently puts the baby into the backpack and starts to zip it up.

Fon starts cracking up in laughter.

"Hold on," Reborn interrupts, lifting a hand to pause the strange Japanese boy. "I don't do the whole kidnapping thing. Try Skull, he's weak and pathetic."

Kyouya gently tucks Reborn's hand back inside, pats him on the hat, and closes the backpack. Kyouya then carefully pulls it onto his shoulders in effort to not hurt the baby.

"Fon, I think there's something wrong with our kid," Reborn says, voice muffled.

Fon drops to his knees and cries into his long sleeves, wheezing and hiccupping. His face is slowly going a bright red and his laughter sounds high pitched and stuttering.

"Your laugh still sounds so ugly," Reborn calls out as he unzips the bag and starts to escape. "Looks ugly as well. No wonder you try to stay calm if that's what happens to your face."

Fon replies by jumping up and stuffing Reborn back inside, the martial artist still cackling. Kyouya ignores his relative and instead crouches to scoop up everything he just dumped out.

He manages to fit it all into his arms and starts walking to the hotel, quickly but smoothly because he really doesn't want to damage the baby he caught. Babies are delicate, like butterflies whose wings can be damaged if you handle them too roughly.

Behind him, the road is being peppered with high-powered bullets, and gushes of wind erupt solely from how fast the two babies are moving.

It's unfortunate, but Kyouya's captive somehow escapes and stuffs Fon inside the bag instead. This leads to a chase through the streets of Italy (the two Arcobaleno really only humouring Kyouya in a little game of tag).

A lot more babies join in on the chase and it occurs to Kyouya that maybe the Incendiary Defence is simply stronger the younger the person is.

All these babies are incredibly strong, actually using proper fire plus the secondary ability, like the green using electricity. Except for Tsuna, Kyouya's nightlights can barely manage to glow fiercely. Then there are adults, so far only Daemon having the fire.

Kyouya assumes that the Varia are the exception, not the rule. Teenagers are weird anyway, apparently their bodies go through change or something? He isn't sure.

Kyouya decides that he just needs to get more babies, starting with the yellow. That shouldn't be so difficult, right?

After four hours of running after the yellow with a mass of infants as backup, Kyouya finally realises that anyone who has a green chameleon is actually the yellow - no matter what they look like.

Most of the chase was just the baby swapping outfits and then pretending to help Kyouya. Unfortunately, he loses sight of the infant swiftly after this discovery.

Kyouya thinks the baby shapeshifter would be a wonderful addition to his pets. If only he could catch it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omake - hunting
> 
> "Are we not done with this?" Reborn asks in exasperation.
> 
> Kyouya, backed up by not only his Foundation but also several of his police and a SWAT team, simply shakes his head at Reborn in reply. INTERPOL is also present, plus one Colonnello and about half the Russian mobs of Moscow.
> 
> ...  
> .  
> A/N: We're getting to the end of this fic pretty soon. Is there anything you really want to see happen in this universe?


End file.
